Silvervine
by lalunaticscribe
Summary: Part 2 of my Floating (Under)world series. "My identity in the human world is Takaba Akihito. I am a bakeneko working as a freelance reporter... So, it all started when I met Asami that bastard." AU, won't strictly follow canon, Akihito's POV.
1. 零：Kinjiki

_**Silvervine**_

 _ **An LLS Production**_

 **You know you're on to something when a pilot chapter nets 30+ kudos in its first 18 hours on AO3 – LLS**

* * *

 **零** **: Kinjiki**

You know that belief where taking a picture is supposed to steal your soul? I wish it stole mine. No, I should rephrase that; I wish I had a soul to steal.

Godmother is forcing an innocent kitten like me to write this. Therapy, she says. It's one of the human things I never understood as a kitten.

My name is-

How do humans start their stories? Maybe it's to do with the missing soul that all youkai lack, because we can't express ourselves or something.

Takato once asked Godmother, and she says that it starts with stating your own name, to which he replied that as youkai born in human communities, we don't have names, so Godmother gave us our names. Let's do that.

My name is Akihito, written as 'autumn' and the _nanori_ for 'humanity'. I am a _bakeneko_ working as a freelance reporter. It has been a while since Godmother rescued us after we manifested got a human form, and were about to be slaughtered in the name of seafood.

This would be a good thing, only if you were looking to become human and did not accidentally become human.

Godmother says it's was going to happen anyway, which I would call bullshit on but didn't dare to since she got me back from Asami that bastard- no, it should be Fei Long the bastard, and Godmother was really hard-pressed against him and the Russian _Zhar-ptítsa_ – I had to ask Godmother for an approximation, who names stuff like this? Only humans! Anyway, I didn't ask for a human skin!

I just got smacked on the head when Godmother, who is currently poring over this, scolded at me to add context since I'm a reporter. I got smacked again for writing the sentence above.

So, it all started when I met Asami that bastard.

* * *

Godmother just clarified that I'm supposed to write as if to a total stranger. "You do that all the time on your job, Aki," she says, "apply your knowledge!"

Since I am a filial godson, and she is holding a knife with deadly force enough to end even _youkai_ who are difficult to kill, I have to figure out where and when to start to someone who _doesn't_ know my godmother.

My identity in the human world is Takaba Akihito – the family name written as 'high wings', and the actual name given to me as 'autumn' and the _nanori_ for 'humanity'. This is my eighteenth year as a member of human society, though I have had a human form for five years before meeting Godmother somewhere near the Tsukiji market – fish is delicious. At that time I was about to be killed for stealing the good _ootoro_ , so Godmother's rescue was probably lucky~

Anyway, Godmother took me home to Yokohama as the only other _youkai_ I knew in my short time of sentience. It took only a year before I realised that humans saw the world so _brightly_.

That was incorrect. Cats have a wider range of vision and can see in the dark. However, subtle colours were confusing. A viewfinder was better to focus my vision, and I realised that what I wanted to do was to photograph things like Takaba-san, that man who works for Godmother sometimes, and the things he made was something... well, good. And the purpose he made with it, to expose human corruption, seemed like great fun.

Godmother thought I was crazy, but she paid for my education. She thought I was crazier when I became a photographer and came back to Edo- I mean, Tokyo, but she was hands-off about it. She just told me not to stay anywhere for longer than three years, or else my tail would split, and then I'll have to eat humans to survive.

After Asami, though, I have great fears for my continued freedom. I wonder if Kou took care of my cameras...

Ah, where was I?

Oh, right, the roof in Shinjuku. Seven stories above ground is nothing to a cat, especially if I could shift forms and then haul up my camera and light gear. You get a cheap panoramic view of the high-rises in West Shinjuku while also being away from the loud excesses of human adult entertainment.

See, I was chasing a lead for a drug deal. Those tend to make money, those Godmother and I kind of... disagree about the free will of drug users and their choice of addictions. I take the standpoint that humans are shortening their already-short lifespans; Godmother is all for a small segment of seven billion people indulging their vices.

Back to the stakeout, which is kind of a gamble as to whether or not drug buyer _and_ dealer would show up. Editors are kind of picky about those.

I succeeded! I got them outside Sion. Harada, the now-former secretary of a Diet opposition member, with known drug dealer Nakaoka, and the manager of Sion, all in the same photo. I'm great!

And what is up with that name, Sion? What does it mean? I think someone misspelled the katakana of 'shion', which is at least comprehensible as a Japanese flower.

I just got smacked in the head to get to the point by Godmother.

The greatest problem behind Sion/Shion was, it was owned by that bastard.

Asami Ryuichi.

I'd like that soul removal now, please.

* * *

 _ **Critiquez, s'il vous plaît !**_


	2. 一: Kitsune-iro

_**Silvervine**_

 _ **An LLS Production**_

* * *

 **一** **: Kitsune-iro**

The first time I met Asami the bastard, I was being slammed into a wall. No _youkai_ would do that to a godson of Kyō Kaigara, even if she wasn't in Japan or even this part of the world. The bad news was, they were human, which meant I couldn't kill them. It would set us back hundreds of years.

I thought I'd have lost them without resorting to extreme measures, but these men were trained in hunting together despite being possessed by the demons of corporate dress code. I was cornered and ambushed in an alley with only the back door of a rusty old building before I realised the trap, at which point the identical-looking men attacked.

They were heavy, heavy enough to stop me from moving my chest even with my natural strengths. The rough concrete tore against my unprotected cheek, and my legs were useless. I'd rather have traded in opposable thumbs for fur, but Godmother would have my skin for a _shamisen_.

"Are you Takaba Akihito...?"

That deep voice – human male, mid-thirties – made me shiver, even without seeing him. The bitter scent of cigarettes seemed like his presence, as I struggled and squinted, looking for the man with the cat-petting voice.1

"So you're the one who captured those shots of the secretary of the member of the Diet at Club Sion..."

I knew right there and then, he's got to be the boss. He sounded like Godmother. No one else could sound that creepy without effort, not without a lot of power.

"W- Who are you...?!"

Some silent command passed that I could not see, and I was manhandled to turn. There, I was made to face a face, with deeply chiselled features: straight nose and thick lips, and moreover, gold eyes that stared down at Akihito.

"Thanks to your 'scoop', I had quite a big loss in my business. I wanted to ask you something."

"W- What...?! That photo ended up not being used, right? It got vetoed!" And if I knew he was a fox, I would've have dropped the project. Everyone knew that gold eyes meant _gitsune_. No wonder it was dropped after the editor bought it! Now I had an angry fox after me, I didn't know how many tails he had, and-

"Let go of me!" They do call the old foxes some of the strongest of _youkai_. I was probably going to die even as they held me down for their fox boss to roast me.

He loomed over him with one hand on the wall.

"Don't be so frightened," and there was the cat-petting voice again. "All you have to do is answer me honestly. I just want to know who leaked the information to you. Won't you tell me?"

I licked my lips and inhaled. In other circumstances, I could understand why humans always wanted to mate with foxes, with something smoky hanging about them. "I... I don't know. What do you plan on doing, finding that out from me...?!"

Smoke, musk... and human.

Okay, not a fox.

Looking back, that was kind of dumb, but I bet any _youkai_ would still mistake Asami for one of the _nogitsune_.

This was good, only insofar as monsters were difficult to kill by human means. It's bad because Godmother would have to pick me up from the bottom of Tokyo Bay, nya~!

One of the demons of corporate dress code, who actually wore glasses, struck his knee into my chest. It might have kicked my lungs, but pain was the name of the game here.

"A brat like you will only get hurt if you underestimate us. If you're going to stick your neck into this world, you'd better be aware of your surroundings." And I was coughing, so why are you talking to me? Or are you talking _at_ me? I wanted to ask him that, but long practise with Godmother probably meant that this guy wouldn't appreciate smart words, no matter how well-meant.

I was still a _bakeneko_ ; my only powers were limited to whatever I learnt and the fact that I changed from cat to human and back. Running and hiding was really the only option.

"...Oww.. I know that...already!" I kicked the _megane_ who had kneed me. He let go, and I started running.

"Hey...!" Angry voices followed me, and I sped up before I heard one of the identical-looking men – maybe they were _shikigami_? But no, I heard bone snap – laugh:

"That brat... He must be stupid, running towards the back. There are only stairs leading up that way."

I continued upward. I may not be able to fly, but if I lost them long enough to transform, I could evade the humans easily. The only problem was that the empty rooftop was illuminated by several neon signs in the area, much brighter than the inside of the building.

I blinked, dazzled as I plastered myself to the barrier surrounding the main ledge, facing the main road. Maybe, if I pray hard enough, a passing _kasha_ would pass over while collecting corpses and let me take a ride.

The humans were already here. I was wishing that was otherwise, but they had come. There went the _kasha_.

"You have no way out, kid." The gold-eyed man inched closer.

"This is still better than when I was chased by an old Yakuza," I smiled at him and jumped.

The transformation took me a while, but my furry self managed to cling onto a weak old sign jutting out from the side. I blinked up as that man with the gold eyes peered down, clearly surprised. He stepped away from the edge.

How do I get down...? Godmother said if I got stuck anywhere, I was to sit tight and yowl until the animal control people picked me up. That was an option, but after I nearly got neutered, that was really an option of last resort.

"...Hmph." A breeze carried the sound of laughter to me. "What the hell. Did you see that?"

"Y- Yes, sir... To jump from this height... it's not the actions of a sane person."

I'm not a person, I wanted to point out. That would mean that I'm a human being, and I'm not.

* * *

When you're not a person, you can't afford to be investigated. You need a name, an address, an identity card, a credit card... being human is tough. I kind of regret all the pain I put Godmother through when I was in human high school now, but that was how I met Yama-san.

Yama-san was an officer in the Organised Crime Control Division. Before that, though, he was part of the Young Offenders Division in Yokohama, and someone who really helped me pass for human before I became a photographer. Yama-san might look ugly enough to pass for an _oni_ , but he was an old friend. He secretly gave me news for any kind of information to make a profit from, and that was why I was meeting him in the break room of the Shinjuku Police Department.

"I sprained my pinky when I fell!" I waved the digit at him.

"You're way too rash... as always," Yama-san mumbled, cigarette in mouth as he turned the pages of his newspaper. "The man you met is most likely Asami. He's the owner of Sion, the place you scooped the other day. That store just got raided after all."

When I arrived in Tokyo, I quickly learnt that there was no way a rookie could make a living off of mere city news reporting. Yama-san's information sometimes saved me from approaching Godmother. It wasn't that Godmother was unwilling – on the contrary – but I entered human society to get away from that world where life was nothing more than a passing phase.

"I got chased around, had my stomach kicked in – it was hell!"

"That's why I told you straight from the beginning, it's information related to some dangerous drug incidents."

"Then that Asami is also in the drug business?"

"Yeah...the guys were all excited about it..." Yama-san glanced at the hallway, where you got the Community Police Affairs Bureau, the Criminal Investigation Bureau, and the Organised Crime Control Bureau.

Tesso-san tended to eat records of unruly _youkai_ that got into the records. There were a couple from Ukiyo Town in the organised crime section. Come to think of it, there's also a permanent _kasha_ circuit for the lost and unidentified bodies in the office of the Medical Examiner Office. See, there are _oboroguruma_ helping some of the locals steal corpses when needed, hence _kasha –_ burning carts toting bodies to burn in the fires of Hell... or something. We're working together! Well, some of us.

Anyway, the city of Shinjuku had somehow become a law unto itself. Shinjuku had the highest rate of drug trafficking in the country. And where there was evil, there was also _youkai_. The heavyweights of the other world tend to stick to their respective places, but Godmother has business on mainland China, Taiwan, and Korea too.

Godmother and I had just ended an argument this morning on the notion of drug trafficking. Godmother says that for some parts of history, drugs were actually sold over the counter, and it was human society's foibles that made drugs the belle of the underworld and so valuable to be trafficked. I kind of failed the argument when she brought up Poland's loose policy towards drugs and the Netherlands actively selling heroin on the streets.

Godmother is a bit like Asami the bastard. Except that there's no way that bastard could match a millennial-old _youkai_ who was already considered old during the Heian period, so there.

But you know, when you get down to it, human markets are really complicated. Take the drug market; you got drugs made in China, smuggled in by Russians, sold in the city by Indonesians and finally funnelled through Japanese gangs. That's like jumping back and forth over the South China Sea, except that humans actually have to care about the distance they travel instead of flying.

"Well, it's not like they'd do anything serious to a kid like you..." Yama-san pulled the ashtray closer and tapped off his ashes before he continued. "But you really need to be cautious about that Asami. On the outside, he's the owner of several high-class clubs, but his status in the underworld is really high, and there are rumours that he's involved in drug trafficking as well. In the case of Sion, the investigation was discontinued so apparently he's able to pull strings with the higher-ups. He's dangerous," Yama-san explained with a nonchalant tone as his eyes darted across the newspaper.

Maybe he's atavistic, I thought. Asami had gold eyes, the mark of the _gitsune_ and their descendants. That guy was definitely dangerous enough, without fox blood in his veins. I imagine the master of all spirits would shudder if that guy ever entered our world.

"But if I give up after something as little as this, I can't live off journalism," I explained to Yama-san. "Someone once told me that I won't become a good photographer by just doing what everyone else does."

Takaba-san was a photographer working with Godmother when I first joined. Back in Yokohama, I had borrowed his cameras and went about the red-light districts of our world, trying to take photographs. I enjoyed it, I realised what opposable thumbs could do aside from look awkward, and then Godmother had ordered Takaba-san to find a master for me to apprentice under.

Sempai hadn't known about us, but he once brought me to a gallery of Magnum Photo. Images frozen in time and deliberately bleached only to black and white still had a... spirit to them. War and horror, harrowing and beautiful, next to each other and side by side.

A soul, Godmother explained it when I asked her at that time. Because human memories are short, they use inks and paper to freeze time to remember their pasts. Then now they use light to compose, making a picture that tells a story, with only one look.

Cats normally don't see that well. Looking close to it with cat-eyes, it was a smudge of black and white. But humans see lines and shapes and crisp details that I wanted to make one day. One day, I would take a photograph of every _youkai_ , laid as their own stories rather than what humans say they are.

"...You're really burning to do this? That's quite the progress for a delinquent who's been to juvie five times."

He didn't have to say it like that...!

* * *

Yama-san later told me that a big drug deal was going to take place that night, at the container warehouse at the pier. I got there when there was still daylight, and I'd barely found a spot when a couple of scurrying rats told me to move, there were dangerous humans here.

After sneaking onto the premises while there was still daylight, Akihito searched around for a spot where he could see the entrance. Finding a perfect spot on the emergency staircase of the pier management company building, Akihito waited several hours for the moment to capture the act on film. I'd have ignored them, but then I realised that there were many people downwind, and somewhere above me.

Those men were definitely cursing when they dropped down to my place to find only an empty film canister, and a gold-furred cat with blue eyes slunk into the night.

Yama-san- Yamazaki had _sold me out_.

That fucker thought I was just another human to be sold off to who knows where? His ass was mine.

Godmother chewed me out later, but I didn't care. I wanted vengeance, and I wanted to be the one to deliver that vengeance, sweet and hot and sizzling!

So I set the Shinjuku police station on fire.

Well, not exactly set on fire, per se... You can't really call persuading the local _kasha_ to take a detour with yours truly still on it setting a place on fire.

That would only come when the detour involved trawling through all four floors of the Shinjuku police station before snatching Yamazaki the traitor up and dragging him along, leaving the burning path of the burning chariot behind us and through a window. Yamazaki's girly scream was only compounded by the fact that it was the time of meeting dark creatures.2

The sky hung between definite lines of purple and orange. Yamazaki's scream echoed in his free fall down the face of the Shinjuku police station; fitting end. Also necessary, since I had no idea what was Asami the bastard doing after me, but nobody could know.

Though, as a suspicious black car stopped directly outside the Shinjuku police station, and a windowpane rolled down to reveal eyes of gold, I wondered, how much could that human see?

Maybe I hoped he saw nothing. If he saw... if he _knew_... our world had to remain secret.

* * *

As it turned out, Asami the bastard knew nothing. That was why there were people waiting for me at my apartment with chains and tranquillisers. Because they still thought I was a normal reporter. Glasses-man was missing; probably still in traction.

That was really irrelevant, because Asami the bastard was there, in his neatly pressed suit, and his totally illegal gun in hand.

"Uh..."

"I wouldn't advise jumping again," Asami softly spoke.

I didn't take his advice.

I ran out of my apartment on the tenth storey, which opened out to an empty corridor and a ledge opening out to the street. Flinging myself over the ledge was possibly the dumbest thing I could have done, but I wasn't thinking, I swear, Godmother! How was I supposed to know he had an inflatable mattress and a fishnet?

* * *

 _ **Critiquez, s'il vous plaît !**_

 ** _1 Neko nadegoe 猫なで声で (cat petting voice): a soft coaxing voice._**

 ** _2 Ōmagatoki is a Japanese term referring to the moment at dusk when the sky grows dark. It has specific meanings for the two ways of writing it: we use the first, "the time of meeting Yōkai, Yūrei, and dark creatures"._**


	3. 二: Shishi-iro

_**Silvervine**_

 _ **An LLS Production**_

 _ **I gotta say, I really felt antagonised over this. Not because I had problems with smut, but because I always think of eroticism as a mental construct. And Akihito is... not the type to talk about his mind. Speak his mind, yes. But talk about the nuances of his beliefs and experiences from a psychological lens? No, not at all.**_

– _**LLS**_

* * *

 **二：** **Shishi-iro**

It took them about ten men to pull me into the van. I know, because I bit about ten different people on the way, despite being trapped in a nylon fishing net that didn't even have the convenience of breaking when it needed to break. If I were a _nekomata_ , I'd at least be able to conjure fire to melt the fibres, but no. Anyway, I bit ten men, and they jabbed me with some needles which I presumed were tranquillisers. Unlike the vet at the animal shelters, the tranquillisers this time were strong enough.

The bastard is a drug dealer. Probably loaded up on the K beforehand.

So, I was knocked out, sedated in a fishnet, and then rudely awoken by someone pouring water over my head.

"Are you awake, Takaba Akihito...?"

Godmother once mentioned that the only question that was impossible to answer was 'are you asleep?' or its opposite. Which was a dumb question any way you put it.

He shifted.

"Asami..." I pulled back, and heard chains and leather.

The nudity seemed secondary, compared to the fact that this bastard had me trussed up and ready to _drown_.

"My first assistant sends his regards," the bastard added in that soft voice. "Not that you would know, but he's in traction. That is some extraordinary leg strength which I would rather not be on the receiving end of, so I have taken measures to neutralise that."

He wasn't joking. Both my – human – legs were bent, each ankle was belted to its respective thigh. A rope hanging from the ceiling and attached to the chains kept them wide open. The bastard had also chained my wrists to the ceiling. The oddest thing was probably the leather belt tied around my cock. Humans have such _strange_ choices of clothing. Never mind that I wasn't about to be slaughtered! Humans don't eat themselves anymore!

...Do they?

I just got smacked in the head for suggesting that. No, humans usually did not cannibalise themselves, at least not in modern Japan. So Asami had not planned to eat me, but I didn't know that as I started to yowl and spit and pull.

"Now, that's just not good," Asami continued, his gold eyes never leaving me – or my immediate vicinity, if the goosebumps erupting in response to a gaze whose details I could not see. "I just thought I'd do what you wanted."

"Odd, since we've never exchanged too many words," I hauled myself up towards the ceiling in an undignified pull. "How would you know what I want?"

The gold eyes had stopped blinking sometime after I hauled halfway up the rope. "Be that as it may... it seems like you didn't show up tonight at the warehouse. Was Yamazaki's scoop not enough?"

"Got distracted," I replied. "Couple of rats were involved."

Technically true, since they told me about the people. It did not seem to be the answer he was looking for, if the violent mashing of a cigarette on the desk was any indication.

I took in a deep breath. Metal powder, rust, salty winds – and _oh crap_.

"There's a lot of cat toys in your apartment, though there's no cat registered to your name."

"You know how cats are," I lied.

"I wouldn't, since I don't have a cat," Asami replied, moving to the box on the desk. It was one of those holey plastic boxes used for strawberries, except that this one contained an orangey nubby fruit from Godmother, grown in her garden. The fruit inside was the very thing I smelled.

"Oh crap," I muttered as the words written in marker seemed even more apparent to my night vision despite being near-sighted. Or maybe that was because I knew what the words would say.

 _Don't eat too much in one go, Aki!_

"So you know what are these for, then?" Asami pleasantly enquired, his gold eyes still resting on my hindquarters as I struggled to climb up.

My stomach growled.

Asami, the bastard, plucked out one of the acorn-shaped fruits between thumb and forefinger. "Smells interesting," he mused, the cigarette still stuck there. "But it's not a mushroom, and I don't own a cat. But this is yours, so you must know what it's for."

I shrugged, trying to hide the fact that my attention had been reduced to that attractive thing in his hand. "Well, you're holding silvervine fruit."

Asami pulled the cigarette from his lips. "And you're such a fan of cat powder, that your... friend... is giving it to you by the punnet?"

"I got cats in the neighbourhood."

"And do those cats teach you to make death-defying leaps as well?" Asami the bastard reached for the ropes. They slackened, and I yowled as I dropped down and smacked my arse – and other delicate parts – against unforgiving cold concrete. "Interesting. Your backbone must be very flexible to nearly bend in half. And your finger strength must be ridiculous to climb up that rope on just your fingers."

I'm a cat, obviously I walk on my toes and hang from buildings with them! And I don't have a collarbone, duh!

I would have told him all of this and torn his throat with my teeth, but then he tossed me face-first onto, and I kid you not, a wooden desk. The smoky scent of Dunhill cigarettes with Asami enveloped the desk as he pressed my face to the grain. This position felt even more vulnerable as something poked at me from behind. My tied hands fell before me, trapped and useless in iron chains and unable to summon the claws of a monster cat to slash the fucker's throat out.

"You're frightened," the cat-petting voice whispered into my ear. "You have a good expression... You wanted to know about me, didn't you? I'll tell you, just like you wanted. Slowly, from this moment..."

The overpowering feeling he possessed to suppress and control those around him was still there. No, he was behind me, seizing my jaw.

" _Nngh_!" I shook his head, but it was like a vice against my skull. It was impossible to break free.

A small bottle lifted before my face, shaking there. My hands moved – too fast.

The good news is, I got Asami's hand smashed against a wad of iron chain. The bad news was, it got smashed between my face, the bottle he was holding, and the chains. Meow-woo!

"Ow, fuck!" Asami had stumbled somewhere, and my legs were still tied like a splayed frog. Whatever was in the bottle had somehow ended up in my mouth, and I gasped and spat out blood and spit against the floor. "Ack!"

"I cannot believe," the gentle voice was laden with disbelief, "that there is someone like you, who is willing to smash his own face to get away from the inhalant drug which you _just swallowed_."

"Fuck you!" The blood on the chains was lubricant enough to slip one hand out, and then it my other hand was free, leaving my claws free to slice the leather belt off. I sucked in deeply, and winced. "Oi, asshole, what's in that bottle?!"

"You'll feel good soon enough."

"No I won't! Cats have a different reaction to alcohol!" I turned towards Asami's general direction, wiping my nose as if it would remove the terrible lily smell. More than whatever drug was in that bottle, the volatile alcohol was terrible in my ultra-sensitive sense of smell, leaving me disoriented and grasping. Something hard and powdery brushed against my hands as I thrashed and convulsed about, being nearly lost in a world without detail and still operating as a human.

A soft, nubby something had rolled into my hand, which I smashed into my face as if it would help. The alcohol dissolved into the fruit pulp, making it more bearable if not outright gone. I sucked in another deep breath, leaving the silvervine and the strange drug into my system.

Silvervine was the best mistress of my life. Since I must have a disinterest towards queen cats, silvervine was like a constant friend to me, granting pleasure and pain all at once.

"Are you high? On _catnip_?"

I purred, blinking as I found the gold eyes up close. " _Nyaa_ ~" I licked my hands and the juice.

"We need to get you to a doctor, Takaba," he pulled at my hands.

I slapped them away, and then rubbed my hands. They were dry. The juice must be on his hands. So I leant over and licked his fingers. " _Hyaa~_ "

My heart was speeding up from licking his fingers and that silvervine. I licked them some more, drawing them into my mouth to suck. Cats don't make the sucking motion because we can't close our jaws, so that took a while, but I'm proud to report that I mastered the art of sucking long before I went to live in the human world!

Asami made a noise and reached for my head. "Takaba, your eyes..."

"Well, it's night," I answered, dropping the soppy digits. I squinted; the bastard up close was very handsome for a human. "Cats see in the dark, you know."

"They're slitted. And glowing."

"Yeah, and?" I absently picked up his hand to lick the ring finger, but it might have been too intense, for I tasted blood. He pulled his hand back with a curse.

"Takaba... why are your eyes like that?"

"Because I'm a cat. Use your brain, Asami."

"You're human." The gold eyes, much like a successful predator, seemed more resigned now. "It must have addled your brains. Need to check if induced brain damage was a thing... or maybe one of those falls had caused brain damage, and the aphrodisiac exacerbated it."

I pouted, wanting more silvervine. He had silvervine, plenty of it. I reached for his hand, the one with the silvervine, but his other hand grabbed mine. A few more moves on his part, and my legs had somehow splayed apart to straddle his lap as he reached down.

" _Nngh...aaagh...! Oh please no-!_ "

"I like seeing you beg." Asami smiled at me as he put a twist on his wrist, nearly twisting off the family jewels. "Do it again."

He leant over and bit my left ear. His interest was definitely prominent in his clothes, but the fact that his hands were trapping my wrists made it tough.

Untwisting one hand probably gave away the secret of my strength, but Asami seemed to have his focus elsewhere. Like the fact that my hand just shredded his shirt, tore apart his belt buckle, and was resting on the Asami family sword and jewels.

"I like seeing you beg, bastard," I replied. "Do it."

His hips moved.

* * *

Godmother told me over a game of Go: "Aki, I know I said to be detailed, but here's another concept from the humans: _too much information_."

The board was overwhelmingly dominated by white. Godmother was winning. Well, she had had about two thousand years of playing experience. She also had so much experience swapping faces, that the face she currently wore of a middle-aged woman, however beautiful, could not have been her true form, but rather the identity of a person now dead, unknown to society.

"Everything that man did was while you were under the influence," Godmother continued speaking over my move. "Therefore, Aki, you should place the blame on him." Her eyes sparkled, the same shift in colour like the underside of an abalone shell. "No matter how good in bed he is."

Godmother doesn't like Asami, obviously. Since she capsized the ship he was on after pulling me off of it by now, I suspected the fleeing might well be mutual by now, especially since she had spirited me away without so much as a by-your-leave, and I was now staying with Godmother in her place away from the world. If there was anything remotely positive about the bastard, it's that he takes care of his own.

"Do you want me to help, Aki?" Godmother asked, walking one of my captured pieces over her knuckles. The clamshell that lay on the wooden board seemed malevolent as she spoke.

"No. Revenge is mine."

"Of course. The methods, though, are not restricted."

Godmother seemed calm now.

That first night and the two days after, though... she hadn't been.

* * *

After I had sex with Asami under the influence – and believe me, I wonder what were the details of the pain and pleasure too – I had apparently slept for three days under a high fever. I know this, because the bastard had apparently moved me to a bed and kept me there for however long my temperature remained at 40°C, since nobody was around to tell him that my average temperature was 38.6°C. The windows of the room I found myself in had all been boarded shut, defending against a raging storm.

"How is it," he spoke as I sat up on a really springy bed, "that you can hang by a chain on your fingers, but you can be so spectacularly inept as to dose yourself with two drugs by complete accident?"

"The silvervine is safe," I defended. "I'm just sensitive to alcohol poisoning." And caffeine poisoning, and theobromine poisoning, and chlorine poisoning, and lily poisoning, and grape poisoning, and xylitol poisoning... alright, life for a cat was very different from a human being.

How was I alive again? What possessed a cat to even try?

"What?" I snapped as I realised that Asami the bastard was still staring at me. My human eyes had returned with the dawn of the sun, leaving his sharp features in full relief in my view.

Oh.

He's beautiful, I realised. The only way I would ever see him like this, was with these eyes.

"You've been out for three days," Asami finally said, some undefined emotion that looked like a cross between irritation and a predator's disgruntlement on his handsome features. "Alcohol poisoning?"

"And lilies. I get high off of them." And azaleas, and oleander, and chrysanthemums, and the entirety of the garlic family...

"In order to live in this world, you have to become smarter," Asami told me. "Otherwise there's no telling when you'll fall into that dark hole again."

"I don't understand. I was born like this." I honestly replied, flexing my wrists. The activities might be a blur in my mind, but scuff marks that lasted three days on the body of a _youkai_ must have been serious.

"You aren't cautious enough," Asami said again.

"Should I be?"

"I trapped, drugged and raped you. What do you think?"

"I'd be dead if you were serious." I looked at the glass window, and the storm raging outside. "I have to find Godmother now."

"Wait, what are you doing?" Asami said once the glass window had broken.

"Finding Godmother."

"There's a door!" Now that he mentioned it, there was indeed a door behind him. "Do you jump out of windows all the time?"

I thought about it. "Uh... I don't remember?"

"I'll ready a car for you. Get dressed."

I looked down at my human form, without clothes, and then I looked around. No clothes. "Thanks, but I got this. I'm a cat, remember?"

"You're delusional, Takaba. I- The alcohol destroyed your self-preservation."

"Oh." I shrugged. "But you'd better not get caught yet, you bastard! One day I'm gonna have revenge on you!"

I jumped down, transforming halfway to grapple with one of the ledges sticking out. My claws dug into walls of concrete made slick by the wind and rain, and my yowls were drowned by the pelting rain and booming thunder over Shinjuku. But my Godmother was there anyway, causing a storm in her search.

A white crane swooped down as the storm began to die, its claws pulling at my wet ruff and dragging me into the air with ease.

"Godmother's going to kill you, you know," her _shikigami,_ Kou, informed me.

"It was an accident, I swear!"

"What number is this already?"

"Well... but this wasn't my fault, I swear!"

The storm had fully died by the time Kou pulled me back to Godmother's house, where I explained that I was alive, there's no need to wreck Tokyo, Yamazaki just betrayed me to a crime lord called Asami-

"Yamazaki betrayed you? I'll kill him!"

"I'm fine!" I persuaded. "I tossed him down the roof of the police station. And, Godmother, _please_ leave Asami alive. I have to live as a human, Godmother, I can't get a crime lord's death attached to me yet."

Godmother subsided, pulling her _kiseru_ to blow a large soap-bubble through. I had no idea why.

"Does he know?" she demanded at last.

"He found my silvervine in the fridge."

"I'll give you some more. Humans eat that as medicine too. Does this Asami _know_ , Aki? Does he have evidence? What did he want with you?"

"He wanted... to mate."

The wooden stick of the _kiseru_ broke in her hand. "...mate?"

"Mate. The poison he had was lilies, though."

She still looked confused, so I explained what had happened; accidental ingestion of two poisons, accidental self-injury, accidental sex, in that exact order.

"Come on, Godmother," I said later. "Get up."

Godmother sat on the floor, rocking back and forth helplessly with laughter. The two halves of her _kiseru_ bubble pipe had landed beside her when she'd fallen out of her chair a few minutes before. "Stop it," she gasped. "Oh, Aki... _how_? That's... a bizarre series of events..."

My face felt as though it had a mild sunburn. I was getting a little annoyed now, as well as embarrassed. "Come on, it's just not that funny."

"The _look_ -" she panted, giggling helplessly, "-on your _face_... and his face! Aki, you jumped down a building in front of him!"

I sighed and muttered under my breath and waited for her to recover. It took her only a couple more minutes, though she drifted back into titters several times before she finally picked herself up off the floor.

"Are you quite finished?" I asked her, trying for a little dignity.

Godmother dissolved into hiccoughing giggles again instantly. This time, Takato and her other shikigami, Kou, started with her.

No professionalism, the lot of them.

It lasted until I got back to my apartment with Takato's escort. Then he laughed some more at the bouquet of Casablanca lilies waiting on the doorstep, with the sender made clear with only one line, despite the lack of signature:

 _I look forward to it._

Oh, this was on.

* * *

 _ **Critiquez, s'il vous plaît !**_


	4. 三: Kaba-iro

_**Silvervine**_

 _ **Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. – LLS**_

* * *

 **三：** **Kaba-iro**

Godmother wore the guise of a young cabaret hostess this time I saw her. It was the third day after the sinking of the _Flying Dragon_ cruise ship.

Godmother's humming a song now.

That song is in Chinese.

Now, I didn't understand Chinese or Russian. Only Japanese. But I could sing a bit, and this was Godmother's favourite song, the lyrics of which I found online.

 **北方有佳人** **  
** **绝世而独立** **  
** **一顾倾人城** **  
** **再顾倾人国** **  
** **宁不知** **  
** **倾城与倾国** **  
** **佳人难再得**

 _In the north there is a beauty. Surpassing the world, she stands alone. A glance from her will overthrow a city. Another glance will overthrow a nation. One would rather not know whether it will be a city or a nation that will be overthrown, as it would be difficult to behold such a beauty again._

Two thousand years, and you still have staying power, Li Yannian!

"The bastard is alone on an island in Bali," Godmother told me once she was sure she had my attention. "There is no connection to the human Takaba Akihito. What will you do then?"

Godmother, not _now_.

"If you want, I can ask Rangda to do it," Godmother continued. "She'll do it for a friend. You won't even have to move... and he'll know it was from you."

"Revenge is mine, Godmother!" I yelled back at her. "I'll think of a way."

She dropped a white Go stone, one of the stones from the shell of a giant clam that had been her, onto the table next to my laptop in her house. "You know what to do, Aki. He knows too much, he has too much evidence... we need to clean up one loose end."

"In a hundred years, he'll most likely be dead anyway," she added brightly, as if that would be better. "Better to remember him when he's still in the prime of life, right?"

* * *

Cats are vindictive, but I just couldn't find a way to Asami by human means. After all, he hated being photographed, which was a pity and an irritation. Nobody in normal society knew anything more than that he owned clubs and businesses. Nobody in the other society knew anything. And from my world... well, I could learn a lot of things, all of them bloody and none of them remotely admissible in court. The only time the word of the dead counted for anything was at the moment of dying, or in the Courts of King Enma. Sure, I found his home address and mobile, but it's not like that would help... much...

Humans are so limited.

No wonder there were so many stories that revolve around turning into vampires. They must really want the power of the supernatural, never knowing what they already have. And we cats are supposed to be the servants of witches?

This is how we're represented.

Unbelievable.

The next time we met, I had nothing prepared and was recovering from the scoop of a minor celebrity with a rather low-key job as an undercover waiter for a catering party. It was simply a coincidence that I was holding a tray of champagne flutes and he took one from mine.

Our eyes met.

"So you've had to resort to a part-time job to support yourself, Takaba Akihito?"

"Broke a leg, can't run after scoops yet."

"Broke a leg?" My honesty always threw him off.

"Well, I usually land on my feet, but at a high enough... yes, ma'am, please help yourself," I smiled at a pretty lady that wandered past, and then continued to serve champagne while walking away from him.

His gaze followed me the whole way. I can tell, because he had that... thing. There is nothing mere about that mortal, to paraphrase a crazy clown.

I had to take out the trash later. With the trash, I tossed out two more men who were accosting a third. The problem was, the third man died, and left a blood-soaked M/O disk with me to courier to _Asami_.

So, I was left with a corpse and a ticking bomb.

What the hell kind of luck is this?

Fuck this shit.

I went home afterwards. The magneto-optical disk remained like an _obariyon_ , getting progressively heavier on my mind until I decided. It was a dead weight, and whoever wanted this would kill for it. So I erased the data on it.

Actually, my thought process went something like: can I find him in Sion? I can't even get in myself. Where else can I find him? And, can I get there?

Well...

This was so handy, I thought as I dropped the M/O disk into the auspices of the Japanese postal delivery system. When we needed to send stuff, it was either sending a messenger or finding a way to communicate with others. No dedicated _youkai_ to deliver.

On hindsight, this was a terrible idea. I should've just tossed it into the trash, never mind Asami. Why didn't I? I don't believe Godmother's spiel about fate, nor did I believe the Witch of Dimensions about how coincidence is inevitable. Nobody needed bad luck to be inevitable in their life, even if it is. Godmother had indeed gone through with her promise of more silvervine at home. I just needed to forget it.

Anyway, moments after the matter had been moved to the Japanese postal system, a car rolled up next to me as I went about the road of life. A man in a black suit stepped out of the car before me – other than the earpiece, he seemed unremarkable.

"We've been searching for you," he said. "The other day, we were not very polite. The boss is waiting for you. Please get in."

"Thanks but no," I refused. "I'm done."

"I must insist," said the drone of humanity. "I was ordered to bring you, no matter what."

"I said, forget it!"

"This is very urgent business."

The earpiece crackled. Well, not to any other human ear, but mine picked them up fine:

' _You know what you must do, Mei Baifa.'_

He spoke in _Chinese_.

"Are you with Godmother?" I asked. "If you are, she usually sends a _shikigami_ over. Since you're not..."

I broke out into a run. The suited guy behind me followed in weaving between cars and motorcycles, the flow of mechanised humanity and their stinky vehicular menaces. The man might be fit for a human, but there was nothing else he had that could keep up with the natural speed of the _youkai_.

Still, it was something big, so I had to lay low until Godmother could smooth things over on the Chinese side. I dived into Shinjuku station and bought a ticket for Yotsuya. I'd have bought a ticket for Ikebukuro, but the natural disaster there was still being safeguarded by the expatriate Black Rider, so most of us avoided that place like the plague.

And yes, Godmother, I realise that the above statement is kinda weird, but you don't go to Ikebukuro if you can afford it either!

The normal route to Ukiyoe Town involved any of the three Yotsuya stations on the Marunouchi line. The route to the _other_ side of Ukiyoe also involved those three stations, for different reasons. So I got off at Yotsuya station, and ran clear across the platform and deliberately fell back, against the stairwell heading to a side exit.

If you are human, don't try this.

The act of falling into the other world brought me there, to a station platform completely devoid of humans – which was impossible in the world of daylight. A line of ox-carts, each bearing demonic-looking faces on one side, were all facing the same direction. A queue stood at the head of the line, supervised by grim-looking demons with clubs and a female station-master, severe and uncompromising as the great avenger, Oiwa-san.1

I turned off my phone, and made sure my camera was also off. Cellphone signals, data, and GPS were permanently lost in the miasma of demonic power needed to keep the boundaries of two worlds mixed and yet separate. No human would ever be able to follow me here, but I had to be careful of what I carried back, even if by accident.

Then I changed my ears and grew my tail. Immediately, I was no longer Takaba Akihito, freelance photographer looking to breaking into crime photojournalism. I was just Akihito, one of many _bakeneko_.

"Ukiyoe First Street, Bakenekoya," I stated my destination to the station-master. If I couldn't hide in the human world, I was jolly well going to hide in _this_ one.

* * *

Ryōta Neko, boss of the local _bakeneko_ clan, was happy enough to help once I explained what had happened. I had no idea how long had passed, since I borrowed a place at the back of the restaurant for a catnap. After a catnap, I came out and sat there, waiting at the restaurant run by _bakeneko_ , until Godmother's message came in the form of crane origami made with two papers.

Two words were written on the paper I unfolded.

 _It's done._

I sighed, about to discard it, if not for the rest of the message:

 _Two humans with great resources looking into your human identity. Lay low, Aki. Maybe it's time to consider becoming a nekomata?_

The other sheet was an _ofuda_ scribbled with a rather nasty curse, to be triggered at a chosen moment by tearing. Even at this juncture, Godmother still cared enough...

"Why didn't I?" I reflected.

Godmother once said that, amongst _youkai_ , if a _bakeneko_ was the form of a cat that had adopted the mannerisms and form of a human, then a _nekomata_ was the form of a cat attempting to reincarnate as a human. Therefore, _nekomata_ had the ability to wield the necromantic powers of corpse revival, strange fires, and other unexplained occurrences. In exchange, they had to restart their entire journey through life to become human. Since humans had the ability to resist silvervine, then the mark of successful reincarnation was not being attracted to it. That was why silvervine is called _matatabi_ ; to travel again.

The problem was, the very powers that _nekomata_ gained would weigh against their karma, by desecrating the corpses of others. Added the fact that cats needed meat to live, the easiest way to live was to steal human corpses to eat... or living humans... and the process could literally take forever. Some cats didn't mind staying as _nekomata_ ; others became _nekomata_ and simply failed, consigned as _kasha_ to the eternal job of tossing the corpses of criminals judged by the kings of Hell into the fires and scatter their souls, never again to reincarnate.

At least, that was the explanation. The _kasha_ certainly weren't talking to me.

Choosing to become a _nekomata_ , though, would require me to live somewhere for three years. That was a dicey proposition, given how many times I'd nearly been evicted. I could move back to Yokohama, but then that would put my dream on hold for however long Godmother would try to involve me into the affairs of this world.

And, assuming I succeeded in not giving in to wanderlust, and split my tail. How many times would I choose moving a corpse over photographing it, especially if my work, maybe, took me into war zones? How would I live with never leaving a mark, never composing with light a moment in time?

I sighed aloud.

"What's up, Mr Customer?" A barmaid smiled at me, her black-spotted ears twitching.

"Just wondering. Being a _nekomata_ would be so much easier in human society."

"Ah, the better to scare them!" She agreed with a smile. "Do you want a drink?"

"Water, please."

"Just transformed?" She nodded in understanding. "We've got _amazake_ , if you want to work on your tolerance."

"No, thank you."

She went to get a glass of water, plopping it down before me. "But why would you want to live in the physical world?"

"I- I want to be a photographer."

The barmaid looked at me in confusion.

"They take pictures," I clarified. "Like... Toriyama Sekien."2

"You want to _draw_ us?" The barmaid looked excited.

"Er... something like that... I'm still learning, though." I sighed. "Say... everyone says that _nekomata_ are looking to become human. Why do we want to become human, though?"

"Why...?" The barmaid nodded too. "A normal cat's life is between two to five years. Living without shelter, having to fight predators and hunt food, always be afraid that today would be the last day... I think that, we are born as cats, but that's just because the heavens did not let us choose. We've avoided a short life for now, at least, in becoming _obake_. Let's live each day happily!"

She walked away to take more orders from the ongoing party.

I drank some water. It might have steamed and turned my brain into mushy meat with the force of my thinking already, but no matter.

I had woken up with this awkward body. Shifting back and forth required timing, and most of that time was still spent trying to live as a cat when I had a new understanding of the world. Godmother's appearance in my life made that process bearable, but then...

If I only gained an interest in photography after I gained the ability to change, then...

For what did I wish to become human for in the first place?

* * *

It was an uncomfortable realisation. It left me there until another origami crane came in and landed on the table.

"Are you injured?" it spoke in Godmother's voice.

"No, I'm fine." I said to it. "You couldn't send over Kou or Takato?"

"We're settling a case between a Gumiho and his family right now. I can't physically move from Seoul." The crane's wings fluttered. "Aki? You know, if you need a break-"

"I'm fine!" My hands slammed onto the table. My claws had come out, scoring through the grain and scarring it as a result. "Oh, shit... I'm going back home! Sorry, Boss Ryōta!"

"Aki! Wait! Listen to me!" Godmother's voice echoed behind me as I ran out of Bakenekoya and through the streets of Ukiyoe Town's other shopping district.

Looking back, of course she was right. All humans needed a break sometimes, and sometimes they want that peace to last forever.

The night stole the clarity of my sight again, and with it returned the blurred shadows and motions of a cat's view. With no way to control it, I depended on hearing and smell to navigate back to the world of humans at Shinjuku station.

It was night there, too, but it was filled with the noisy flow of humanity. I let the flow take me, moving me physically even if it felt like being back at the Bakenekoya. Except, the Bakenekoya was filled with my kind of people, the people who worked like me, passing their lives away from the great powers of our worlds, be it human or _youkai_. A cat, a creature like me, had no basic need save the want for life. But it was not like we could reliably tell time anyway, nor could we remember the passing of the seasons.

More time...

What did I want with more time?

What did I want with knowledge?

For whom, did I possess this burning need to be human?

So occupied I was, it was definitely my fault that the car could not stop in time before I walked into open traffic.

* * *

 _ **Critiquez, s'il vous plaît!**_

1 _**Yotsuya Kaidan, the story of Oiwa and Tamiya Iemon, is a tale of betrayal, murder and ghostly revenge where a disfigured Oiwa, oppressed in life, became a vengeful ghost to haunt her former husband to death. Written in 1825 by Tsuruya Nanboku IV as a kabuki play, the original title was Tōkaidō Yotsuya Kaidan. It is now generally shortened, and loosely translates as Ghost Story of Yotsuya. Arguably the most famous Japanese ghost story of all time, it has been adapted for film over 30 times, and continues to be an influence on Japanese horror today. Therefore, Oiwa is the station-master of the other side of Yotsuya station (of course, this is a story).**_

2 _**Toriyama Sekien was an 18th-century scholar and ukiyo-e artist of Japanese folklore. Toriyama is most famous for his attempt to catalogue all species of**_ **youkai** ** _in the Hyakki Yagyō series._**


	5. 四: Ginnezumi

_**Silvervine**_

* * *

 **四：** **Ginnezumi**

So, there was this time when Asami Ryuichi nearly got me locked and discovered in an asylum.

No, no, wait. Let me go back and explain just how truly insane that bastard is. You can take this as a cautionary tale, a valuable lesson about life as a human being: anyone who accidentally runs you down only to drag you into a mental asylum and install you in there by force is crazy. It's the kind of crazy they don't have medication for. Your only chance is to run the hell away and never look back.

I, of course, didn't do this.

I am now short one apartment.

But before that, we have to get to the bit where his driver ran me down by accident.

* * *

"Ow, fuck, _ow_."

I'd really thought my leg would have knitted together already. Guess there was still a limit to _youkai_ endurance. I scrambled to move, but someone tossed me up into the air over his shoulder.

"Oi! Put me down!"

He tossed me into the car. Then he got into the car. The door closed. The car moved away.

"Takaba Akihito."

"Why you _again_?" I complained to the bastard's face, mainly to show how I really didn't like him.

"Seeing as you're the one who walked out in front of my car, it's really your fault." Asami kept looking at me. "Your eyes have changed."

"I told you, I'm a cat."

"No, you told me you were deluded into believing that you are a feline. Possibly by the same entity that caused Feilong to be recalled to Hong Kong within six hours of Baishe tearing apart your apartment."

Okay... he thinks I'm delusional.

"Quite frankly, I'm even surprised you remained alive long enough, considering that you've been missing for a week," continued the bastard. "I even had men combing the morgues for your corpse."

A _week_? What the fuck did Godmother do? "Well, I'm alive, since I have a broken leg to complain about in front of you. You have verified my welfare. Good enough."

At least my other parts had been hidden. If Asami found out-

"The first through fourth floors of the Shinjuku police station seemed to be under renovation," Asami continued. "Fire damage, I heard."

He can't pin this on me.

"And this on the same day that Detective Yamazaki committed suicide by falling after setting you up at the behest of the Kajiyama Group to bring me down," Asami's Zippo lighter sparked, causing the wick to catch fire.

My hand itched towards my pockets, the doors, anything that would get me away from this man.

No, wait, he's human. There is nothing to fear except the unknown from him.

"Really? The Kajiyama? Interesting."

"They're gone now. No scoop there." Damn him. "But so soon after you evaded my men, Yamazaki died. For a moment, I believe this to be the Kajiyama covering their tracks-" Yes, do believe that, go on... "-save for the fact that the Kajiyama clearly weren't involved. Let's not forget the night we spent together."

"What, you want a repeat performance? One show only, no encores."

Asami's gold eyes fixed on me. Right now, they were the only discernibly unique feature of that bastard. "Takaba, it might surprise you to know that human nails cannot cut through leather as easily as steel."

"Is that so?"

"So, when faced with evidence of strange occurrences which are related, however proximately, to you, I can only rationalise that Detective Yamazaki's death involve you in some capacity."

I should have contracted a hit via the Nura-gumi. A nice, safe, staged mugging of a police officer would have less attention than this. Or he could have a nice, long eternal sleep in the cold embrace-

Asami's face was moving across to face mine up close, allowing me to make out at least the shape of his nose. I heard the click of child-safe locks, and wasn't that a joke. "Your eyes are doing that again," he murmured. "Is that how you evaded Feilong's men?"

"I'm a cat."

"Let' me just say, I don't believe you." His breath played out across my lips. "Your delusion's gone on long enough. You just disappeared for a week, and then somehow Liu Feilong goes back to Hong Kong for an unknown reason. Let's not forget the data you erased from the disk. You've caused me a lot of trouble, Takaba."

Delusion?

I... a cat got the cat's tongue. It was really embarrassing. I really had no words, a broken leg, and this bastard who thought I was _crazy_.

"If you think I'm deluded, then why did you save me?"

"Now, your harmless delusion has translated to a danger to yourself and everyone around you."

Oh, shit.

One had stroked my cheek. "It's a peaceful place on the outskirts of Tokyo," the bastard still sounded oblivious. "The staff there are very accommodating. You'll be fine there, Takaba. Before that-"

My hand rested on the front of his shirt. He fell silent.

"I sliced your shirt with my nails."

I can't go. I can't.

"You don't know your strength. It's also my fault. Who knew what you were up to."

"Let me out."

Asami fell silent.

"Let me out, bastard! Asshole!" I pushed him away, trying for the door. My leg spasmed in pain that was duly ignored in my bid for freedom.

Wait, Godmother's _ofuda_ -

Before I could get it from my pocket, a sharp object jabbed me. I should never have left my right flank exposed to the bastard.

"It'll be alright, Akihito," I heard before I fell unconscious.

* * *

The fucker had learnt from when I scratched and fought his employees. He'd tripled the Ketamine in that one shot and added Fentanyl. I knew it, because I woke up feeling like I'd throw up at any moment.

I awoke just as someone hauled me up across a broad shoulder and patted my pockets, dragging out my cellphone. In the time that I'd spent asleep, my jeans had also been removed, and my leg bound in a splint. Luckily, my upper body was still covered, and with it Godmother's _ofuda_ in my jacket pocket.

An arm stretched across my shoulders, and another hooked under my knees-

Wait.

THAT BASTARD...!

Godmother just read that sentence over my shoulder. If not for the seriousness of my being dumped in the Shisui Clinic – I looked up the name later – she'd be laughing as I described my past experience of being princess-carried into a mental asylum.

There were no straitjackets involved. There was, however, an MRI and a couple more large devices, and everything was going on well until one of the professors spoke up:

"Asami-sama... there's something wrong with the patient's skeletal structure."

"What is it?"

"Look at those eye sockets and that powerful jaw. And the teeth- they're teeth for carnivores, not human teeth. And, the hands and feet- the carpals and tarsals are far too elongated to be human. Normal humans have their ankle bones down here, but the patient has them up here. This entire structure is his ankle, not his tibia. He's adapted for a digitigrade mode of movement."

"What does that mean, doctor?"

"It's like... a cross between a human and a cat is my first impression. That is remarkable-"

Fuck.

I stopped pretending, pulling the _ofuda_ and tearing it with my teeth. As the curse manifested itself in exploding white light, I immediately dived for the door of the sterile clinic, transforming and running, despite the pain of my leg. Slick corridors emptied of people meant that I made it out with mainly Asami's men following me.

I needed to get out of here and into anywhere, any forest... if there was a forest, that was best, forest youkai tended to be hostile to humans. Stupid Asami can be cursed and die by my curse! I curse you, Asami you bastard!

The Shisui Clinic – which I only found out later – was surrounded by a brick fence topped with barbed wire, dotted with barred windows bearing garden boxes. Pretty bushes meant to hide the bars. In my cat form, it was easy enough to squeeze through after making the frankly horrific jump. I escaped to the other side and into closely packed forest.

That forest was the creepiest place I'd ever been to, short of the Nura-gumi's main house. It was completely silent. The trees were packed so closely, that not even the wind's whisper could be heard. Not a single critter or bird or anything except miles and miles of trees and bones-

Bones? I passed by an _ema_ nailed into one of the trees, transforming to be better able to read it.

 _Suicide Note_ , it opened.

Looking back, a place where no one would be likely to want to approach _would_ be parked right next to Aokigahara.

Footsteps sounded behind me. I hid back into the tiny hole at the roots of trees, and waited for them to pass.

* * *

I had to break off for a bit, because, just when I was getting into the story good, my godmother just had to crash in.

The thing is, apparently her friend in Bali needed a backup dancer, and at short notice, to perform an opening Baris dance that no human could perform. Which is a bit odd, but this was the witch-queen widow of Bali for you. And since Godmother got along famously with the old hag who was the very reason why her very own daughter wasn't able to marry, Godmother was going to find someone who had learnt that dance.

Guess who!

At the very least, I could take comfort in the fact that 1. nobody recognised me on the beaches of Bali, and 2. it was a solo dance.

The costume involves white leggings, leg coverings up to halfway around the calves, a belt reaching up on the body with a wavy-bladed kris tucked near the shoulder. Around the torso hung a collection of loosely hanging fabric panels, with one large panel fixed to my chest, and topped with a circular collar, decorated with beads. The final touch involves a triangular headdress made of shells on springs, which bounced around during the performance.

This was supposed to be a war dance, involving human warriors. Why was it that there were no humans around?

"Not up to her standards," Godmother said. "I kind of owe Calon one anyway. And since you're mooching around at home, you might as well work a bit."

Which is how I ended up dancing to _gamelan_.

Careful moves, careful moves... the opening is scouting, do not screw this up. Middle of the stage, yes I did it, yay! Full stature, prepare to spring, whirl on one leg, step in time to the brass ring-!

Were there gold eyes in the crowd?

Apparently, my face must have duly conveyed something like the 'storm of passions of a quick-tempered warrior' required, for Godmother barely gave me shit about it in the sweltering backstage section.

"Aki, I got bad news for you."

My headdress fell off of my head.

"Asami's in the crowd, isn't he?" I sighed.

Godmother's expression told me all I needed to know.

"Okay. So I go back home now?" Godmother's place near Bali was... well, if you could park your house several fathoms below sea level in the Badung Strait, that would be it. Being a _youkai_ sometimes made addressing mail a rather abnormal challenge.

"I have to settle matters after her performance first. Will you be alright?"

It was the Barong vs Rangda dance, then. "Yes, Godmother. I'll wait by the side."

I wonder what would be the locals' reaction if told that the witch-queen herself was currently playing the eponymous part. Given that the Balinese dancers have to evoke her spirit each and every time the costume got trotted out, it was a wonder that nobody ever caught on that some of those performances were really Rangda duking it out with the Barong.

One has to adapt to the times, after all. Godmother's business across the south and east parts of Asia usually left me trotting along behind her in my youth, before I entered high school. She'd taught me a few things, to help in her work; but, the education imparted by a _youkai_ who was over a thousand years old when Japan was barely formed is a bit... varied. She'd never stopped learning, but... well, I think Feilong of all people was surprised that the bit on the side he kidnapped apparently knew how to read the Chinese _Book of Songs_ despite not knowing Mandarin.

I didn't _speak_ Mandarin. It still didn't stop Godmother from teaching me how to _read_ it. 'Sides, the mass media was a beautiful thing the likes of which nothing in the world of _youkai_ really equalled. Since Godmother had been trained as a courtesan – in the classical sense the likes of which pre-dated the Heian period – I'd learned something about performance.

Godmother and I were connected both by fate and art; even if they were different media of art, even if the media changed in time, we were artists.

The troupe of secretly terrifying female demon dancers I'd opened the act for were performing on one of those stages by the beach. It was close enough to a spread of resorts connected to each other by the chain of islands and a management used to foreign visitors coming for a taste of 'Paradise'. It was easy enough to pass off as a tourist; my inability to speak anything but Japanese put me at the mercy of the locals, but waving in the direction of the dancers was enough to make my point and net me a cool lemon tea.

I gotta say something about lemon tea. We don't have its like in Japan; the closest thing is red tea and a lemon slice. And I'd tasted tea given to me from an American reporter in Tokyo for a lark. It was pure sugar somehow liquefied, with a smattering of tea leaf. Here, they make the tea with sugar, add lemon juice, and serve it on the rocks.

Refreshing, delicious, and _totally outside of my feline diet_ , until I managed to convince my body to behave like a human being. I was going to cry.

"You couldn't be so broke as to be unable to get water."

"I wasn't thinking about water," I defended against the person I had been trying to avoid the most.

"Half of that menu is not suited for a cat, and the other half not suited to anything before dusk."

"No. If I'd tried harder, I could have gotten rid of that weakness," I admitted. "I was so eager to become a photographer, I rushed through the process to take human form. I didn't want to live dishonourably under the claws of others, Neither did I want to be looked down upon. And, most of all, I didn't want to be controlled by destiny – I wanted to be in control of my own fate. To do all of that, I ignored Godmother's advice. I learnt nothing about humans. I formed no connections to survive in the human world. I could only rely on others to live. It's so stupid, Asami."

"Akihito, you are capable enough. Who got me out of Aokigahara?"

* * *

Aokigahara. The Sea of Trees. Also known as one of the world's greatest suicide spots. Gun reports never sounded as loud as they did within its oppressive silence, nor did the moans of earthbound spirits sound as despairing as within the confines of its boundary field.

"Hello, Asami."

"Feilong!"

"This forest is a place where people have been discarded, Asami." Another male voice hissed against the bastard's shout. "It's a fitting graveyard for you."

"You'll be the only one buried here."

A pair of white loafers, hidden under the edge of a dark _changshan_ , padded around the mouth of my hiding place. "Your men must be lost in the forest already. It's just the two of us..."

Get out of my way, you!

I brushed past them, inviting a start from the guy in the changshan, but otherwise I would have escaped if the sky hadn't turned dark.

No, it wasn't an eclipse. It was simply dusk, the time of meeting dark creatures once more. Leaves rustled, bones creaked and snapped. Limbs of roots and vines and arms wound around the trees.

More gunshots were swallowed in the trees – Asami and the _changshan_ guy were shooting at the local host of _yūrei_. Knowing Asami and his ilk, he'd probably driven a few people into this crowd as well. Hell, he'd probably _assisted_ them.

"Asami...?" a heavy-looking ghost that had fused with a large tree mumbled. "Is that you...?"

"Maeda?" Ha, finally something unnerves him!

"Not just me, Asami Ryuichi!" Maeda laughed, the branches of his tree whipping around. "Sato and Fujita are here too. After you buried us here... How long has it been? How long have we nursed this hatred? You... that human too... _join us_!"

Six bullets exploded from the tree bark, causing Maeda to laughed once the gun clicked on an empty cartridge. Around the tree, ball of blue flame winked into existence, strung along like fairy lights but each floating vaguely on its own invisible perch. "It's useless! Useless! Useless! Useless!"

The changshan guy, Feilong, took over shooting uselessly at the _kodama_. I scratched out at Asami's leg a bit as I passed by him.

He started with a shout, whirling around with his gun pointed to face me, and shooting the other earthbound spirit reaching for him.

"Come on, Asami!"

He blinked. Those gold eyes must have been stunned with surprise, but I could not see many details. "T- Takaba-?"

"Yeah, it's me. Come along."

Asami turned from me to _changshan_ guy. "Feilong!"

The gunshot tattoo stopped. "What?!"

"Truce." Asami pointed at me. "You follow Takaba out first."

" _Hah_?!"

"It's clearly a hallucination, but anything is fine so long as we get out of this cursed forest and its pissed-off inhabitants! Move!"

Asami had reloaded, and was smoothly shooting behind the _changshan_ guy and following behind me as I – albeit rather slowly – led them past the demonic trees of a site so haunted as to warrant its own warning. A disembodied fireball of a head giggled as it fell out of a tree – and got an ineffectual gunshot to the face. Echoes resounded, swallowed by the forest and its malevolent want for more life to be shed in its dense foliage.

Both men were in good shape – good enough that none of them seemed too out of place even as I was panting next to the entrance sign from the Suicide Prevention Association. This is so unfair; they had longer legs, surely they must be exhausted?

"W- What was that?!" Long-haired pretty changshan guy finally spoke, his face pale in the light of the waxing moon and a street-light.

"I don't know." Gold eyes looked down at me in my cat form. "Fuck. Maeda's still alive..."

"Technically he's an earthbound spirit," I cheerfully chipped in. "And now that I know he's your victim, I can go pump him for clues."

"You can stop playing tricks now, Takaba, it's not funny."

"It's hilarious! And now that I know you've got skeletons here, I'm going to dig up a scoop there later!"

Asami scoffed. "Oh please, like I would leave a body in a public place. Maeda committed suicide by his own hand."

Footsteps echoed behind us. Both men stiffened, looking around to behind them. They saw nothing.

"Betobeto-san, you might want to go now." I advised.

The invisible spirit making the footsteps sighed. He walked away, leaving only the sound of his footsteps.

I transformed back to human form then. Unfortunately, I was right next to Feilong, which on hindsight was a bad move, since his first step was to shoot me.

* * *

Looking back now that I was safely seated by the Balinese coast, I wanted to slap myself. "Fuck. That was _luck_."

Then something made me yell at that bastard. "And why the fuck were you in Aokigahara anyway?! You might think the world revolves around you, but that place is not somewhere to casually visit, even for me!"

"It couldn't be helped, since my hell-cat decided to run there." Asami was calm; too calm, I would say, except I was too overwhelmed by the tropical heat to bother. "And what were you thinking, changing next to Feilong and naked?"

"Excuse you!" I hissed back. "I am a monster cat. A _bakeneko!_ Being naked is nothing to me."

"Oh? So you wouldn't mind stripping right now?"

"I wouldn't mind, but then the humans would arrest me," I mocked, slapping away a wandering hand. "The _Flying Dragon_ is over and done with. After Godmother's business here is done, I'll go back and live with Godmother until my tail splits and I completely become a _nekomata._ "

"You have a godmother?" Asami's eyes sharpened.

"You've met her. Well, that Russian guy's bodyguard met her. Feilong also knows her." I rubbed my cheek. "Did you know that Feilong has snake ancestry?"

"No, I didn't." Asami sounded like he was humouring me. "He was adopted, to my knowledge."

"I didn't know either, until his blood poisoned me." Now that I had Asami hooked, somehow I could not resist explaining: "Somewhere in Feilong's ancestry, lies the blood of the world's most famous white snake."

* * *

 _ **Critiquez, s'il vous plaît!**_


	6. 五: Gunjo

_**Silvervine**_

 _ **An LLS Production**_

 _ **A/N: I'm going to switch to a weekly schedule from now on because of RL affairs. See you next week! - LLS**_

* * *

 **五: Gunjo**

I am sure, in any other circumstances, I would have been afraid of Liu Feilong. Unfortunately, since our first meeting is kinda tainted by him shooting me, I'd been unable to muster anything other than pure irritation directed him – unlike Asami, whose misconceptions were gust-busting hilarious.

How do humans _think_?

Anyway, he shot me. It wasn't even a good shot, since he was next to me, and the bullet still went wide. The sound, though, rang in my ears, and since his arm was outstretched when I tugged my head away, I bit him in irritation, hard enough to draw blood.

For your information, Feilong was only very distantly descended to Haku Sotei, of the _Hakuja_ -den.1 Since his blood was so diluted, he was essentially human. However, since the source of his blood stemmed from a thousand-year white snake, its toxicity was the direct opposite of me, a cat sensitive to poisons.

I quickly tossed his hand away, spitting out blood that burned at my skin and cheek as it mixed with my saliva. "What the fuck of an _obake_ are you?"

The horrible taste and the venom kept creeping. I spat it out. It stayed. I transformed, running away from the horrible-tasting man and the bastard back into the embrace of Aokigahara.

I kept chewing leaves.

Rain fell.

I sat with my head thrown back and water gurgling down, trying to wash it out like some battered turkey.

I ate the floating _hinotama_.

I even made a game attempt to chew on the tree-spirit's leaves, but that only made the taste even more revolting.

With that, I was left with no other option but to ask a passing _onmoraki_ to deliver a message to Yokohama. The glowing bird might have complained, but my pitiful state meant that I was in no condition to press it, and we were all _youkai_ anyway. The bond of our common species might be stretched thin by differences and age, but it never changed our common existence as those who lived in the world of darkness to scare humans.

* * *

Godmother arrived with her _oboroguruma_ right before the breaking of dawn and the return of light. She carried me into the ghost cart, and the rest of the story involved returning to her place in Yokohama, where she checked my pulse, complexion, and mouth.

"Well, it's clearly serpentine in origin," Godmother informed me after she made me wash out my mouth to test the washings. Silver needles lay scattered around the bedside table next to the futon she had installed me in. As she held it up, I could see with renewed eyes that each of them blackened from contact with the diluted poison. "It's weakened, but at its prime it could easily kill a young kitten, you know. How did you end up biting a snake?"

Watching Godmother pull my blood from my arteries was just depressing. I told her everything, and she hummed right until I mentioned the guy's name.

"What a coincidence?" she muttered as she gave me another rinse of water with the feather of a Zen bird. "There's only one guy of snake descent named Feilong that I know of in this world. I fought his ancestor on the West Lake nearly... eight hundred years ago, yes. Though his snake blood is weak, that white snake spirit is a tricky one. I have no idea how she'd convinced that mortal toy to marry her, much less seek immortality for her. Rather powerful too."

I scrubbed at my teeth with a disposable toothbrush that Godmother had handed me now. " _Ick_."

"According to the Five Elements theory, Bai Suzhen originated from the water element," Godmother continued. "Her blood, and her descendants, is the opposite of fire-type _youkai_ like you, Aki."

"He... knows?"

"He didn't know his heritage. I had to kill two of his men in Hong Kong to get you off of his tail." Godmother crossed her arms. "I don't know now."

I spat out some more tiredly. "Oh shit. I called him an _obake_ to his face after leading him away from Aokigahara."

"Does it matter? There's no proof. He'll probably just think of you as insane." Godmother brushed part of my hair out of my face. "What were you even doing there, Aki?"

I told her.

* * *

"Godmother wouldn't stop laughing- Stop laughing!" I complained at the bastard. Somehow over the course of telling the story, I'd ended up dancing to his tune and followed him to the gated villa that was his current haunt.

This is ridiculous. Why do I keep following this human? And what was that delicious smell that kept trailing with him, that centred on his hands and that bite mark that I left-

Half an hour later, I figured it out.

Granted, half an hour later, I ended up fellating his fingers again before I realised the pattern of me licking his fingers.

"You-" _lick_ "- put-" _lick_ "- silvervine-" _lick_ "-on your _hands_?!"

He stuck his fingers back into my mouth. "How is it that you can smell fourteen times better than the average human, but you falling for the catnip?"

"Screw you, that was one time!" I especially licked the ring finger on his left hand, which bore a relatively large ring which I found tasty. "Fuck, what's this thing?"

"A hollow ring with powdered silvervine." He sounded smug, the bastard. "It's even topped with cat's eye."

"You suck, you know that?"

"I couldn't be worse than someone who could contact his godmother in another country and yet fail to get a message to me."

"Chinese _youkai_ don't know you," I explained, shivering as the hand currently not pulling me close to his chest played across my butt. "My godmother, though? She's been around for nearly three thousand years. They know of her more than you."

A hard smack echoed, and I arched my back in pain. "Ow!"

"You never contacted me after you bit Feilong."

I scowled through another hard smack. On hindsight, I should have begged Godmother to kill him, or to help me kill him. My pride – and ass – still hurt from all the abuse he put it through, never mind that I managed to escape and find work in Hong Kong with the Chinese _youkai_ there until Godmother could pick me up, but unfortunately got captured and hauled aboard the _Flying Dragon_.

Actually, I should kill this guy first, but then his fingers crooked and I forgot myself.

"Shit, I need to call Godmother- get your hands off, bastard, I swear-!" I yelled an hour later.

What kind of freakish stamina did he have? Godmother had checked his background very thoroughly. She'd even gone down to the Hirasaka Underworld to check his entry of the Book of Life and Death. This was a mortal human, right? No surprises in the family tree and all?!

"Stay with me, Akihito," Asami said once he'd had me flat face-down on his fluffy bed with his chest plastered to my back. "You can become a _nekomata_ as long as you have a house, right?"

"Hah? You want to take in a monster into your house, and deliberately make me even worse?" I asked.

"If that's what it takes." Teeth traced the length of my spine. "You can't leave me, and I'd rather drag you into Hell with me than let you go. It'll be a perfect arrangement."

What... fearsome instincts.

Indeed, I just needed a house; Godmother's house would be the most convenient. This man, with his cool and reserved judgement, simply looked at the situation and decided that yes, he'd like a monster under his roof, if it's all the same.

This was a bad man.

I'm not a good person either.

But... there are some things that nobody should do... be they human or monster.

"Your species have a contract needed between pet and owner, right?" Asami pressed on. "The three-year contract."

"Yes," I spoke into the bed. "When humans take in a cat, they must tell it, 'I will only care for you for three years'. After the stated time, the cat is free to go anywhere. That is the folklore. That is... not wrong."

I looked at him. There were so many things I could tell him. But there were also so many things I could not say. Either he would be killed to keep our secret... or I would be...

"One of us has to leave a world completely. Godmother... Godmother risked a lot this time, using the _Takarabune_ ," I stressed with my head up, hoping that reason would finally break through to Asami's thick skull. "I can't become human. You can't become _youkai_. In a hundred years... Asami. I can't even remember the reason that I wanted to be human for. What makes you think that I'll remember you in a hundred years?"

I did not look at him. His weight was still on my back. Somehow, the great panther had stilled in his mauling of innocent kittens.

Shit, why did I say this when he's got tender bits of me near his teeth?!

"No," he breathed against my earlobe at last. I shivered as he bit it, and then I felt my legs part. "I am the only one you'll ever have. Cry, knowing that you belong only to me."

I cried. Screamed, yelled, shouted, and I'd have continued a whole list of synonyms for words praising of his sexual prowess if not for the heavy thumping of the villa door and men shouting. One of them sounded like Kirishima.

"Oh, shit, it's my godmother- ooh, you bastard...!"

I could hear my parental figure yelling, "You move right now, you Neolithic ape, or I swear there'll be nothing left of you to bury when I'm done with you!"

I believed her.

Asami gave another hard thrust.

The door imploded, and it's really embarrassing to write because right now Godmother's still laughing at me, but-

Godmother walked over the fallen body of Suoh, who'd probably been used as a battering ram to break the villa's door down. Kirishima, who had probably been on reserve to do the same to the bedroom door that was unfortunately open, slid down to the floor after she let go of him. He hit the floor with an awkward _thump_.

"You didn't tell me you have that sort of kink, Aki," she said as I stained the sheets. "And come to think of it, you also didn't mention your... something that young people use for their lovers. Sex friends? Friend with benefits?"

I sank in utter mortification. Godmother, not that I appreciate your efforts at the multiple tiny changes needed to adapt to modern times, but _not now_! And Godmother was even smiling at that bastard!

Said bastard chuckled, pulling out if only to settle most of his weight against my hip again. "You must be Takaba's godmother."

"Kyō Kaigara," Godmother told Asami. "You're taking care of Aki, I see."

"I am Asami Ryuichi."

Her smile fell. "You're that human I told Aki to kill, or be killed for, or remove himself from the human world for."

"Yes." Another possessive hand landed on my hip, and he squeezed, still gazing at Godmother from his position on the bed. "And I don't appreciate being told that what is mine, will have to remove himself from the human world which he so loves, in order to become a _nekomata_."

"It's because of you that Aki's cover was blown!" Godmother snapped back. "In a hundred years he'll have stabilised his human form, and then he can pursue the art of photography without undue interference."

Godmother was not crass enough to suggest his almost-certain death at the end of a century.

"Get your clothes on, Aki. We're leaving," she ordered next.

I scrambled, but for the heavy weight that prevented me from moving.

"Asami, not now!" I desperately pleaded. "Godmother is way stronger than Yuri or Feilong, she capsized the _Flying Dragon_! She'll kill you!"

"If you think I'm taking care of your godson, why not leave him permanently in my care? You don't seem to be doing much hands-on work yourself." Asami still sounded relatively unphased about the imminent threat of bodily harm.

"You're human."

"Semantics aside about my species, we're compatible," Asami continued. "There are also stories of humans marrying _youkai_. That sounds like an excellent idea, Godmother _-in-law_."

In response, Godmother set the bed on fire.

* * *

Godmother was practically shaking with rage once we got back to her place. Asami was now on the hit list of the _leyak_ queen, and Godmother was still fuming.

Well, it was better than literally spitting fire as she did in Asami's villa, but she could have exercised some restraint.

"Aki!"

"Yes!?" I started.

"Decide what to do with Asami by the time I get back," Godmother looked like she'd rather gargle acid as she sauntered out of my room.

Decide?! I couldn't even decide to kill him myself!

It might be strange to talk about killing like it was nothing. In fact, were I a person, I would probably feel sad about, you know, not respecting the sanctity of life and all that jazz. Maybe, if I lived in human society, I'd care more about that. The thing is, I lived between worlds, no laws, no rules, and no reasons needed to end a life. I just lived, barely under the radar of the great _youkai_ of the capital.

I shudder to imagine what would happen if I lived in Kyoto. Too many _onmyoji_ crawling around nowadays. Damn exorcists.

Anyway, once my leg had healed and I was back to working photography jobs, I might have been fighting next to a large Mercedes... and accidentally tore one wheel off...

How did I meet Asami after that fracas in Aokigahara?

Oh. Right.

* * *

The organ trade is always flourishing; humans would always seek a way to extend their lives, and frankly there were... not so many problems associated with live organ transplant. Meat could grow back. Dead bodies, though... well, anyway. Since there's usually a taboo against opening coffins – and X-ray works pretty well – some enterprising bastards tried the old tested method of using coffins to smuggle objects... and one dead body from China...

Yes, I know the stereotype. That doesn't mean that all _kyonshi_ came from the Qing Dynasty. My godmother knows a host of them from various times of China's rise and fall... and a few parts that weren't even China, such as Mongolia.

But why are there so many corpses?!

That was an exciting night. The _kyonshi_ decided that a cat was a viable source of blood after finishing off three people.

I disagreed.

Violently.

It ended with me necklacing it with a borrowed tyre, a jerry can of gasoline and a lighter. The tyre came from a Mercedes in an alleyway. Its driver had already run off when I was fixing the tyre over the monster's head.

Come to think of it, who the hell parks in an alleyway? No, seriously. It's just asking for something bad to happen.

"I'll be interested to know if you haven't switched to organised crime, after all."

" _Kyonshi_. The next time you smuggle with a coffin, make sure it doesn't get mixed up with actual coffins with dead bodies in them." I panted, sighing as the bane of my life appeared once more. "Oh shit. That's your car... isn't it?"

"No harm done, since it was in the way of a bloodsucking corpse monster." A cigarette started burning, acrid smoke wafting in the air. Plastic and steel bent – my ears told me that Asami had wrenched the license plates off of the Mercedes. "Though I advise moving now. My driver has already called for another ride."

I bristled. No way was I following him... or the fact that he smelled... oh, wow, what was that- _delicious_ -

"I- I can find my own way..."

"It'll be faster to get away," Asami pointed out.

It was so reasonable, somehow I ended up in the car opposite Asami the bastard. Since I was so freakishly near-sighted by human standards in the dark, I just sat there aimlessly, trying not to get too attracted to the tea-like fragrance wafting near the dark shadow of Asami's silhouette.

"Where are we?"

"Read the sign."

"My eyes... change at night," I hesitated to admit, rifling through my pockets and pulling out a packet of Pocky. "I can't see details except up close. Cats are near-sighted, you know."

I also couldn't see Asami's expression in the car opposite me as I started eating. "Is this the reason why you wanted to be a photographer?"

"Part of it. I can see in the dark, but the details... I can't see the details as a cat. Only broad strokes. That's why a viewfinder is so important to me." The biscuit stick broke off in my mouth.

"Cats don't eat sweets either."

"Cats can't taste sweets," I corrected. "I'm a monster cat. I'm making up for a twenty-year lack of sweets."

"Your dentist must have a straw doll with your name on it."

"I can tell if my dentist has been visiting a shrine at the hour of the ox,2" I replied. "I'm surprised that none of your enemies tried it against you. Isn't it, like, a case of an impossible defence?"

He sighed. There might have been a signal. The car stopped. "We're at Ochanomizu. You know how to get back to Shinjuku, right?"

"I'm not headed to Shinjuku." I got out anyway.

"Then where are you going?!"

"None of your business!"

At least, I was lucky enough to reach one destination of the night. I took the train to Tokyo station, where I waited, and waited, and waited... a wheelchair bumped next to me.

"Hello, Kashima-san." I stood up to take the handlebars behind her. "Kyō Kaigara sent me. Did you have problems on the train?"

She held up her hands, and tapped my fingers. Two taps.

"That's good. Godmother will be so happy that you made it. She's been organising this meeting for young _youkai_ for a while already. Hanako-san and Kuchisake-san will also be there."

Two taps.

I wheeled Kashima-san out of the station and down the street before we took a left and an _out_ in a _torii_ gate. The room we reached resembled a large school gymnasium at the moment, though frankly my godmother could make it anything she liked.

Godmother herself was decked out in a furisode of hydrangea flowers against black. A ring of chairs surrounded her, and each of them held a _youkai_ of a sort, and she kept chatting with everyone, exercising the deft skill of three thousand years of entertaining.

"Everyone! Kashima Reiko-san finally came from Honshu!"

The _teketeke_ I had escorted hung her head, shyly waving.

"Reiko-san! You're finally here!" A woman in a trench coat with a surgical mask on her face ran towards us, a pair of bloodstained barber's scissors in her hand. "And Akihito-kun, too!"

"Kuchisake-san, you shouldn't run with scissors, you're setting a bad example with Hanako-chan," I told her.

"You're one to talk!" Kuchisake-san hugged Kashima-san. "Hanako-chan, Reiko's here!"

The gloomy little girl chomping on her sweets in the corner barely glanced up. "Reiko-san. Akihito-san."

"Ah, good evening, Hanako-chan," I waved.

She waved back... and went back to eating.

Poor kid...

"Erm... Aka Manto-san isn't coming?" I asked Godmother.

"No, he's coming late." Kuchisake-san replied. "Apparently he met Jami-san from the Nura-gumi, and they've been chatting every night!"

"Eh? Aka Manto-san and Jami-san?!" I exclaimed.

"Apparently they're bonding over being too handsome for human eyes..."

"And why were _you_ late anyway?!" Godmother eyed me.

" _Kyonshi_ in wrong location. Tried to eat me. Had to necklace it."

We chatted some more about nothing and everything in particular. Since none of us belonged to the clans of _youkai_ honour, we could and did gossip during the rare times that Godmother held Monsters Anonymous, as I'd taken to calling her pot-luck parties.

Empty-nest syndrome can be a scary thing...

"Aki!" Godmother pointed to a laptop, a projector, a web-cam and all its power cables. "Could you help me set it up? I've got a _samiho_ to connect to in Seoul."

"Hah? What is this, International Youkai Day?"

"Aki," Godmother gave me a look. It was the kind of look that communicated disappointment and promised pain all at once.

"Fine."

"Thanks! Oh, the pot-luck is over there by Rinko."

So, a gathering of _youkai_ including a _teketeke_ , Hanako-san of the Toilet, a Kuchisake-Onna, a monster cat, and not to mention the oldest _shinkir_ _ō_ in the world, were here for a pot-luck party. It was nice, peaceful, no overbearing bastards.

It was only after Godmother's _samiho_ friend in Seoul – who had a long and interesting story about a relationship with his human boss with movie-star good looks but an absolutely horrible temper, and trying to make a relationship work when you regularly had to eat _yang_ essence via sex – had already finished his call that I realised for the first time-

"This is the first time I've had so many friends!" Rinko-san, the great-granddaughter of the local white-snake land god giggled in the middle of a group photograph I was taking.

-maybe, the human world... wasn't cut out for me.

The shutter clicked.

* * *

 _ **Critiquez, s'il vous plaît!**_

 _ **1 The Legend of the White Snake (白蛇传), also known as Madame White Snake, is a Chinese legend. It concerns a white snake spirit who marries a scholar and gives birth to a son, but is then locked away in a pagoda by an evil monk. This is probably one of the few positive cross-species romances in Chinese mythology.**_

 _ **2 Ushi no toki mairi or ushi no koku mairi, also variously called ushi no toki mōde, ushi mairi, ushimitsu mairi (lit. "ox-hour shrine-visit") refers to a prescribed method of laying a curse upon a target that is traditional to Japan, so-called because it is conducted during the hours of the Ox (between 1 and 3 AM). The practitioner – typically a scorned woman – while dressed in white and crowning herself with an iron ring set with three lit candles upright, hammers nails into a sacred tree of the Shinto shrine. In the modern-day common conception, the nails are driven through a straw effigy of the victim, impaled upon the tree behind it. In Japanese law studies, attempts to commit murder through the ushi no mairi is often cited as the "textbook example of impossibility defence case crime".**_


	7. 六: Shikon

_**Silvervine**_

 **I know I said that I'm posting on Wednesday, but I needed to do some self-promotion, haha.**

 **Now, some of you might have noticed another fic in the same series, Ghost Fire. These two fics are connected in more or less the same universe, so please give your support if you're into the Totally Captivated fandom too!**

 **And, depending on the response I get, I'll probably do an Okane ga Nai cross to combine all the stories.**

 **\- LLS**

* * *

 **六** **: Shikon**

I had to interrupt my accounting of the past, because in the present, Asami had just sent me an email.

 _Did you know, Kyō Kaigara does not exist?_

I typed back a _Now, why would Godmother tell her current worst enemy, i.e. you, her human identity?_

It is the nature of _youkai_ to be secretive. It is a reflex, a method to gain fear, for _youkai_ are nothing if they are not feared.

A heartbeat later, Godmother came to my room.

Her attire had changed again; from the heavy dripping of Balinese jewellery, she'd changed into a black furisode with a particular _genji_ - _mon_ made in a repeating pattern printed on it, matched with a slate blue _obi_. Clusters of chrysanthemums were attached to her bun. Even more than that, her very face itself had changed into that of a fresh-faced _maiko_ or _geisha_.

"The Hyakki Yagyō is going out for the last time this year, Aki. Do you want to come along?"

Do you want to fully embrace this side of you, she meant.

Running with the Hyakki was exhilarating. It was something never meant for a world of the barely concealed veneer of civilisation shared with Asami and his like. It was something in-your-face, a railing against the staidness of society that sometimes even I chafed at – I wanted to photograph, but the world of darkness was one of so many traps and holes that it was so easy to get lost into. Walking in the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons, surrounded by the heavy aura of summer madness and a thousand tales left untold in the romances of the floating world that had seized the imaginations of many, many humans at night... that was a savagery. It was not meant for a world of peaceful assembly and convenience stores and electricity.

That was a dangerous thought.

"I'm good, Godmother. Can you open a door to Tokyo for me, please?"

And I was in Shinjuku once the door was opened.

* * *

Godmother once explained her ability like this:

A _shinkiro_ is composed of the breath of the _ayakashi_ named _shinkiro_. Composed of the Kanji for 'clam', 'breath' and 'building', it indicates the creative properties of a clam's breathing bubbles into the sea. It is in the name that the fear and awe a shinkiro inspires is realised; a _shinkiro_ is a clam that casts mirages so real, that within its domain nobody can tell fact from fiction, night from day, good from evil, sky and sea and sand.

Basically, Godmother's power was to create a domain. A dimension of her own, for her own use, and which enters the physical world at points of her choice. Having outlived others of her species across the whole of East Asia, Godmother was currently the strongest spatial-bending _youkai_ of the continent. That was why she was so valuable to the Youkai Merchant Alliance, and to the Nura-gumi and the _youkai_ on a whole – and why her domain was regarded as the perfect place for truly neutral meetings since she finally moved back to Japan.

All the children here – all the young urban legends of Tokyo's bustling, transient daylight world – were here to pay their respects to her.

The pot-luck was dissipating, everyone was departing by flight or by Godmother's doors, which sent them to a point of their destination. I was about to leave via a door, but then Godmother stopped me.

"There's a man outside of my property." Of course, this wasn't her property, only that the building entrance was connected to her doors for the brief passing of the night. "Take care of it, would you please?"

"Godmother," I sighed, but made my way out as a cat. Hissing and spitting really made no movement from the man until he spoke.

"Oh Takaba. Some warning would be appreciated."

"Asami? What are you doing here, asshole?!"

"Well, you and your lady friend simply disappeared into thin air walking into my properties."

I snorted, and then looked at the abandoned building. "Dammit. That's the last time I let her choose."

"Her?"

"Never mind that. It's... business on my side." I waved a paw.

Asami must have been looking at me or something, for he said next: " _Manekineko_."

"Eh?"

"Isn't that what they call beckoning cats? They invite fortune in by waving their paws for customers, right?"

"Well, yeah... oi!" I screeched as Asami picked me up in his arms. "Put me down, you bastard! I'm going home!"

"There are people staking out your house."

"Hah?! Why?"

"Because Feilong apparently took offence last time."

Yes, Godmother's ability would have saved me a lot of pain if I'd had it to escape the idiots of my life.

The glasses guy waiting at Asami's car blanched and kept his distance whenever I waved at his direction from Asami's arms. It was funny, until he rolled up the privacy screen. Being a cat, though, proved to feel too vulnerable when Asami was involved, and so I changed back.

That was when the great panther mauled me against the upholstery of his car-

And that reminds me, I need to see Asami.

He should be back already.

* * *

Club Sion was a sight for sore eyes in the present, as it had been in the past. I hung about near the main entrance, which was manned by bouncers that looked large enough to rival the members of the Kanto Great Ape Alliance. I'd initially come to look for Asami – to break things – but the reason for why I was in such a rush was blocking the way.

Godmother loomed at the entrance of Sion, the nape of her back made up in the exact pattern favoured by the _geisha_. Dignity cloaked her as the bouncers let her in – magic must have been involved, none of Asami's men were ever so polite.

I snuck in by the back door as a cat, slowly crawling and dodging the help and bouncers to sneak towards Asami's officer, where I lingered behind a potted plant, unseen.

"Your face is different, Kyō-san. "

"It is the prerogative of demons to draw their own faces, however they please." Godmother's voice was steady, cultured, studied.

"How convenient. You do not have an identity in the human world. You'll be glad to know that your assassin missed us by mere minutes. A _leyak_ , was it? Balinese ghosts are so interestingly... macabre."

"It's just not wise to inform you of it, Asami-dono."

"So I see. Then, what has invited Godmother-in-law to my club? Godmother seems more at home in Gion than here. Surely Godmother does not wish to see my corpse?"

"Yoshiwara has always been rather stifling. But, if I had to choose a location... the best place of my life has been lost for over thirteen hundred years already. Enough of myself. The only reason I came at all must be obvious. Your body, dead or alive, is relevant only as far as Aki is concerned."

"...go on."

I saw Godmother flutter her sleeves. " _Genji-mon_ represents the chapters of the _Tale of Genji_. This particular crest symbolises the Ukifune chapter."

"It is beautiful, but... what are you saying?" Glass clicked against wood.

Godmother, why are you talking about two different things now?

"Ukifune was torn between two loves of her life," Godmother alluded. "Loved by both Kaoru and Prince Niou, finally attempting suicide to resolve the indecision she faced, becoming a nun in Ono at Mt. Hiei, never seeing Kaoru again."

"...I think," Asami finally spoke, "that such a metaphor is... debasing. For both of us. Which role do you play, Godmother-in-law?"

"Neither. Nor do you play a role, Asami-dono. The loves of Aki's life lies in a world entirely different from the one of his birth, but he cannot divorce himself from this world of darkness. The world of human darkness... is one of great suspicion, of secrets exposed and bartered." Godmother paused. "Aki's human identity will never survive scrutiny. If he is connected to you, neither will his _youkai_ identity."

"I have my ways."

"And... I have never met a _youkai_ who could become human. It is not in our nature." Godmother sounded rueful. "I will not doubt your resources, nor your power, Asami-dono. I will not cast aspersions on your intentions that I know of. However, you of all people should understand. This case... this _affaire de cœur_ is not... It will not last."

Ouch.

When Asami replied, there was something different in his voice. "Then do you believe that I am... bewitched?"

"Aki doesn't have skill at illusion." Godmother shook her head. "No. You are seized by curiosity. The world of monsters is easy to get lost in, you know. My stupid godson only cares about photography. If left to his own devices five years ago, you'd have sworn that he was an elementary school student. I had to arrange his identity card, his driving lessons, his lessons in manners, how to act like a human being because he'd rather chase his cat toys- _ahem_. Where was I? Ah. Will you leave Aki alone, then?"

Too late, Godmother realised that she'd just told Asami how basically crappy at being human I had been to Asami.

"All the more reason for you to entrust him to me," Asami smoothly cut in like a boss – which he was. "A thought just occurred to me. In the case of unclear backgrounds, the done thing between humans is usually to establish a marriage. In America, they call that a green card marriage."

The resulting silence was so loud, it was audible.

Abruptly, Godmother stood up. "I... need to consult Aki."

"You do that. Have a good day, Godmother-in-law."

In answer, Godmother disappeared from the middle of his study. I mewed, and transformed as Asami looked up again.

"You shouldn't joke about that," I advised him. "Godmother works in the matchmaking departments. She'll be checking with the old man under the moon now!"1

"How much did you hear?" Asami barely flinched as I crawled over his desk to better make my point.

"Doesn't matter! I heard the whole thing!" My nose nearly touched his as I nearly shouted, "Godmother hates you! Are you really okay if a spirit with matchmaking abilities interfere?!"

"That makes no sense." Yeah, I know- "We should be together for at least seven lifetimes."

"Sorry, her attention span's not quite that determined yet!"

Asami kissed me full on the lips. "But a tiny kitten such as yourself managed to crawl out of the Dragon King's Palace to see me. Surely that sort of determination warrants a reward."

* * *

Firstly, I have to explain – all the events leading up to the Dragon King's Palace of Kowloon Bay?

Asami's fault.

Well, the actual things started when Jami-san came to Tokyo, a few months after Aokigahara... in between a few messes...

I had a bad feeling about it when I spotted a _natto kozo_ in West Shinjuku spying on Sion's main entrance on a random stakeout. One little _youkai_ by itself might be a coincidence, but the next day I saw the spirit of a glass container join the _natto kozo_ , my interest was aroused.

I transformed back into a cat, the better to talk to Oryō. "Is the Nura-gumi casing out this joint?"

"Ah, there's a suspicious guy in that building behind some things in Jami-san's domain. Jami-san's human girl is trying to stop it, but the human world is complicated, eh..."

"Isn't that a historic village?!"

"Who knows," the other one spoke. "Anyway, we should keep them in view first."

With that in mind, I walked away from the eyes of the Nura-gumi and called Asami.

"Oi, bastard," I opened in response to his _Moshi moshi._ "You up to anything in Gifu?"

"... _Takaba_." His voice somehow got softer with each moment of heightened danger. " _You're rather well-informed._ "

"Well, a piece of _natto_ and a glass cup told me."

" _...with you, I never know if you're being metaphorical or literal._ "

"Shut up, I'm telling you this out of the goodness of my heart," I groused back at him. "Should've let you burn. By the way, when did you open with ' _moshi moshi_ '?"

" _It seems like a wise precaution. Did it work?_ "2

" _Moshi_ -" I squeaked as the repeated syllable cut across my tongue. "Y- Yeah... it works."

" _Cat got your tongue?_ "

I hung up on him, and wandered about a bit more, trying to figure out why did I even warn him in the first place.

The evening news opened with Asami pledging money towards historical preservation in the historic Hideshima samurai domain.

Well, that was my good deed done.

Days passed, before the bastard actually had the gall to call me when night had already fallen and I was washing the dishes. Water's a bitch to electronics, you know.

" _The Gifu project ran into an unexpected obstacle,_ " he'd opened. " _One of my... competitors... tried to bid for it, and met Suganuma Shinako._ "

I hummed over the dishes I was washing. "Why are you calling me, bastard?"

" _Apparently, tonight he burned alive in his Gifu office._ "

Called it. The Nura-gumi doesn't take lightly to interlopers. "That happens when you try to bulldoze land that's haunted by a rather powerful ghost."

" _Any other sites to avoid?_ "

"I'm sure you can figure it out yourself, bastard."

He hung up. I went back to washing, but a furious knocking at my door left the task incomplete as I went to answer it. I opened the door, and then slammed it back.

"And we were getting along so well, Takaba." Asami's foot had wedged itself between the door and its frame.

"I never invited you in!" I slammed it some more, but the bastard had used his weight well. A tea-like scent continued to hang around him, like... like...

"The fuck is that smell?!"

He held up something.

I back-pedalled immediately, releasing the door and letting the beast through. He followed me, smoothly closing the door with his other foot and still holding the most toxic weapon of all time.

"The strangest choice of arrangement I've ever made," he gloated as my fingers itched towards the bouquet. "Seems like a wise choice."

Tartarian honeysuckle. Yellowbells. Guelder rose. Valerian. Indian nettle. Lemongrass. _Matatabi_.

"Fuck you, did you have to bring that in?!"

"You seem to be down on silvervine at the moment. It seems like the best courtesy."

I pinched my nose, though I couldn't do anything about the smell. "And you decided that a load of that stuff in your presence is the best courtesy? Courtesy my ass!"

"Well, that too."

I backed up until I hit the very limits. I looked at him then. "So... am I the female cat in this relationship?"

"So you're willing to admit that there's something?"

"Even if it's true... do you know? It's the queen cat who chooses," I smiled, and let myself fall over the edge of the open kitchen window.

As expected, I landed on my feet.

Why does my meetings with Asami always end with me falling down from great heights?

This time, I had a head start on Asami's men waiting in ambush. I took the chance to laugh at the gorilla who'd kept me away from Sion during that debacle with the magneto-optical disk. This was so fun! I climbed the façade of a building up, never stopping my run.

In the midst of losing their trail, I spotted gold eyes in the distance. Asami himself had tossed the ridiculous bouquet of cat drugs elsewhere, and was now watching me run. I did a triple flip down, rolling onto the roof of an adjacent building with a laugh. Asami's men probably gave up, since a heartbeat later my phone started to ring in my pocket.

"Your men all need retraining!" I laughed into the speaker.

"None of them were exactly told to chase after non-human entities," Asami reminded me. "Of course, I will catch you again."

"You can't chase me into another world, Asami!" I prepared to leap towards another building, one arm stretched out.

"Then I'll just have to drag you out of that world and into my grasp."

"I believe you, Asami. But I'll catch you in my viewfinder first!"

It was approaching the _Ōmagatoki_ that it struck. It, apparently, being a bullet.

The pain arrived before the quiet gunshot. That was because the bullet had outrun its own sonic boom, and the bullet had hit a vital area long before I'd even heard the thing.

Asami's shout sounded tinny, and the phone fell from my ear and down with the sway of inevitability. I could barely move, my reflexes just barely enough to get me to crash-land on the ground in a relatively safe position.

On a side note, asphalt sucks. Your blood get smashed all over the road and it gets everywhere. If you really need to spill blood, do it on varnished tiles – easy to clean, less of a hassle. Not likely to serve as grisly reminders of your death.

I didn't die, of course.

I was awake the whole time the Chinese lugged my body into a darkened van and drove away, with many words spoken in Cantonese and Mandarin in the tone only associated with curse words. Then they drove it into a location of steel and the sea – a cargo container.

Then I was moved into something with iron bars and kept under guard.

Feilong, that _fucker_ , used a cage to transport me. I should have burnt his clothes. Or, I should have shot him somewhere sensitive. That would have been worth the shame of being stuck behind bars.

At least the bars were wide enough for my head to poke through, once the bullet to my heart had been ejected. Wow, apparently hunting me was worth expending a solid-point armour-piercing bullet. Too bad it wasn't apparently worth a crap on security.

Unfortunately, Feilong walked in just as I was halfway done.

"Heavens, I didn't think you were serious," the long-haired guy lowered himself down to a half-kneeling position, which was totally incongruous to his entire look. He had very dark eyes. "That hole is humanly impossible to squeeze through."

I lugged my hips through the bars, wincing as my bones righted themselves underneath a human skin. That was the difficult bit done.

"Fuck. You."

"Well, not likely." His hand moved. Something stuck to my forehead and fluttered down my nose – a talisman of yellow paper. The paper flared, and then exploded, causing me to flinch and rear back.

"Oh, that Taoist from Mt Mao is worth his money," Feilong tittered as I thrashed about from the effect of the Chinese curse. "And you're really a monster wearing human skin! Is that even your name, Takaba Akihito?!"

The rest of me was out already, but the damned curse still prevented me from fleeing.

"What beautiful skin," Feilong cooed, stroking my cheek. "The human you tore it from must have screamed. So many hearts must have been eaten to maintain it."

"This is _my_ skin!" I hotly countered. Godmother might have praised my skin in a roundabout sense of making a great shamisen, but this was the first time I'd met accusations about demons peeling human skins to wear. "What, you kidnapped me to ask me about my skincare regimen?"

I could have told him. Godmother never really skimped where beauty advice was concerned.

"I kidnapped you to ask, how do humans become demons?"

…

..

.

Yeah. I wished he'd asked about the skincare regimen. It's not like pearl powder was as expensive as it had been in the past.

It wouldn't be as expensive as giving up humanity.

* * *

 _ **Critiquez, s'il vous plaît!**_

 _ **1 The Red String of Fate, also referred to as the Red String of Marriage, and other variants, is an East Asian belief originating from Chinese legend. According to this myth, the gods tie an invisible red cord around the ankles of those that are destined to meet one another in a certain situation or help each other in a certain way. (Often, in Japanese culture, it is thought to be tied around the little finger.) According to Chinese legend, the deity in charge of "the red thread" is believed to be Yue Xia Laoren (月下老人), often abbreviated to Yue Lao (月老), the old lunar matchmaker god, who is in charge of marriages. The two people connected by the red thread are destined lovers, regardless of place, time, or circumstances. This magical cord may stretch or tangle, but never break.**_

 _ **2 Ghosts are supposed to be unable to say 'moshi moshi', that's why the Japanese supposedly open telephone conversations like this.**_


	8. 七: Yanagi

_**Silvervine**_

 _ **Like I promised, Wednesday is posting day~!**_

– _**LLS**_

* * *

 **七：** **Yanagi**

Hong Kong.

The Pearl of the Orient.

The Fragrant Harbour.

The destination.

You'd think that Godmother would get a _freaking_ clue, since I was already in her neck of the woods. Hong Kong is a fucking _island_ , dammit! How hard could it be to sense that, you know, her dear godson was in the city with currently the greatest proportion of supernatural to human in East Asia?

Currently, though, I was stuck with a triad boss who seemed to have gone off the bend en route across the South China Sea. He had just asked me _how do humans become demons_.

"...ah?"

"I can't think of any reason outside of your nature that would draw Asami's interest," Feilong honestly replied. "I can only conclude that Asami wants to completely become a demon, and is thus keeping you at hand for that reason."

"Hell no," I flatly replied. "Not that I could tell. I thought the same thing when I saw his eyes, but no, he's definitely solidly human."

"Eyes?"

"See, everyone says that _gitsune_ have gold eyes, right?"

Feilong nodded after a while. "So they claim... that was true?"

"Ah, probably more than most," I shrugged. "Mutants exist as well. A couple of people with fox blood have them as well."

"Then, what about people with snake blood?"

"Snake? You mean _hebi-tsuki_?"

"Don't change the subject! You called me an _obake_ when we first met!" Feilong pointed at me. "Don't you dare lie, Takaba! You know what in this blood of mine, right? A deadly poison that corrodes everything I loved."

I shrugged, curling in back on myself. I'd retreated back into the cage's confines, its iron bars and the talismans stuck outside of it currently the only protection I had against this maniac. "I asked a great _youkai_ to treat my poisoning. She told me. Wanna know what she said?"

Feilong nearly reached out to the bars, but held back.

"Things like you can only twist words to suit your own purposes," he commented. "I won't believe anything you say, but, talk. Tell your lies."

"God- I mean, she said that Haku Sotei's descendants always lead interesting love lives."

"Haku Sotei?"

"Ever heard of the _Hakuja_ - _den_?"

" _Hakuja-den_..." Feilong's eyes widened. Something metal clattered against the floor, ringing in the confines of this container. " _Bái Shé Zhuàn_?!"

For someone who just said that they won't believe anything I say, he's really buying into it. "That's what she said," I lay on the floor of the cage, easily changing back to cat form and making myself a smaller target. "You're human, but you've got _just_ enough snake blood to be stronger and smarter than most, ward off most threats from our world, and prevent anything from possessing you."

"You're lying..." Feilong growled, and I nearly wanted to flee him. "Even... assuming... that I have... the blood of a white snake... It's been a thousand years already! I'm human!"

"Never said you _weren't_ , pal," I cautiously replied. "You're human. But can anyone really say that they're fully human? I'm human when I'm not furry, strung out on catnip, or out at night."

He drew his gun and fired. I ducked and dodged, one, two, three-

He stopped. He frowned, likely wondering what had possessed him to try and shoot me.

"If you really want to know, why don't you test your own blood?!" I laughed at the man who could realise neither the heights of heaven nor the depths of hell. Several Chinese men were coming in, most if not all of them staring at their boss shooting at a talking cat. "If you really want to be a white snake... well, I can't answer that. Because I'm a cat that transformed to a human, not a human changed to a cat. But you can become a monster just like me. Or maybe, you _already_ are."

" _Gui ah_!"

" _Yaoguai_!"

I had to ask Godmother what they said later, but the general feeling of humans discovering our world of monsters for the first time was there. Feilong knew now, and judging by his face, there was probably some turmoil hidden within him.

My options were very limited.

 _1\. Try to spark a will o' wisp. Burn my way out._

Not possible yet. I hadn't mastered many of the combat arts. Should've paid attention to Godmother...

 _2\. Get out as a cat._

I checked the talismans.

They really were done well. Feilong had gotten his money's worth from the guy who did such work – it was strong enough to hold back anything under five hundred years. For a newbie _youkai_ like me? I'd have greater chances of growing wings.

 _3\. possess someone._

…ick.

Godmother said that possessions, while something any _youkai_ could do as easy as breathing, was a bit like asking a favour really, really hard from a mortal. Possessing someone usually bound the youkai to that human for until either party died – whether for karmic balance for whatever havoc caused while possessing the other's body or some other reason of ineffable coincidence. That's why the Kanji for 'haunting' ( **憑依** ) is composed of 'ask' ( **憑** ) and 'caused by' ( **依** ).

Plus, they were unsanitary.

Sure, I could control the bastard and make him walk off the top of the Tokyo Tower, but I really didn't want to be anywhere near that bastard's mind. It'll be creepy and violating – for _me_.

I'm just a cat who'd rather keep breathing and working, thanks.

Feilong had left. All of the guards were now giving me a wide berth. I laughed, causing some of them to jump. One of them even drew his gun at me.

"What? Never seen a cat before?"

One of them babbled in Chinese.

"Don't understand, speak Japanese!" I scowled, but he freaked out some more.

" _Buyaolaizhaowo, buyaolaizhaowo..._ "

"I'm hungry." I made a show of licking my lips.

Both guards immediately fled, and I laughed at their backs. It must be so strange for them, I thought as I lay my head down. They were going to be my entertainment for the next few days.

* * *

Apparently, if you're a Triad boss, the container ships will move at full speed for you. It was barely three days before the entire cage moved, still containing an unwilling prisoner, into another location.

Wherever it was, it looked modern from the outside but still bore a Chinese theme; amongst them being a three-fold calligraphy screen, folding fans, and a few knick-knacks on display on wooden platforms. I recognised amongst them a hollow bamboo tea tray with a removable grille; atop it stood a Yixing clay teapot and matching baby-sized teacups all in dark brown, with a wooden holder containing the wooden tools – tongs, tea scoop, tea pick, circled by a tea funnel – for a _gongfucha_ ceremony standing next to it. Even weirder, there was a whole row of glazed _gaiwan_ , all in different colours, next to that table.

My Godmother treats tea as serious business. I might make crappy tea, but at least I could say that an expert had taught me the nuances of it. I bet most of the time he drank with the _gaiwan_ instead.

Maybe if I broke them, he'll throw me out? In Hong Kong? Maybe I could find Godmother. I hope...

A boy ran up to Feilong, babbling in Chinese. I ignored him, watching Feilong's softening features. His son?

"Fei-sama!" Or... his servant. Who spoke Japanese. "You're hurt!"

I will never understand rich humans. Godmother I understood – she'd been doing it a lot longer than most humans ever lived. And when did this long-hair get _hurt_? He's still wearing a poker face no matter how many times I look at him.

The kid babbled some more, in Mandarin Chinese now. I would've listened, but I really only understood Japanese, animals and _youkai_. Godmother had despaired of my language faculties.

"Tao." Feilong dissuaded the kid, pointing towards me. "Meet Akihito."

"A... cat?"

"Did you bring me a snack, Feilong?" I licked my lips again. That very gesture had scared all his guards now.

"..." I laughed as the kid's eyes ballooned to comical proportions. "It talked! Fei-sama, it talked!"

"It is said that cats have nine lives, so it will grow a tail every nine years," Feilong explained to the boy. "So when the cat has finally accumulated nine tails, nine years later it would become completely human, with nine lives."

"And Fei-sama caught it?"

"Excuse you, but I have a name!" I hissed at the boy.

"Then what's your name, Cat-san?"

"I'm hungry."

"I'll get some milk! Wait here!"

"Cow milk? Don't want it!"

Tao tilted his head. "Then what do you want, Cat-san?"

I opened my mouth to give him the same crap I told all the guards. His dark eyes would dim with fright, he would shrink back, and he'd be frightened of cats forever...

"...Cooked meat. Leftovers is fine. And water, no milk or tea."

Feilong watched me as his boy left with a happy laugh. "You didn't scare him away."

"Unlike you, I don't get amusement from torturing kids." I waved my tail. "So, how long did you plan on keeping me locked up in here?"

"Asami must have his eye on you for a reason. _Other_ than sex," Feilong corrected himself when I made a move to reply, and he did it with a gloating smile. "It was worth capturing you just to see him so frustrated... haha..."

He winced, and made to sit on the long couch facing the cage. "But the past three days of you terrorising my men have finally ended once you touched the soil here. A monster cat like you might be able to say pretty words and wear a pretty skin, but that's really all you're good for."

"Fuck you! I have a job!"

"Yes, as a freelance photographer," Feilong's low chuckle nearly made my fur shiver. "Asami was so frustrated when you disappeared during that week... I nearly regretted returning to Hong Kong then, but the murder of two subordinates is a destabilising influence. And now I might have been shot, but it was _worth_ it... ouch...!"

"You're crazy, you know?" I commented as he nearly bent double. "Going so far as to get wounded like this... they always say that Mafia bosses would be, I dunno, more serious. But you're like a little kid. How 'bout I call Asami, and we can settle this over coffee? Not that I know why coffee's involved."

"..."

Feilong's silent contemplation was eerie, and I'd played mah-jong with the Three Great Yūrei of Japan. "...You really have no sense of humour at all, do you?"

"...I wonder how much you would fetch on the black market. Or should I have you dissected to see how you work?"

He might have been serious. I don't know.

I still saw red. It might not have been the best move to put my face as close to the bars as I dared to yell at him: "When I get out of here, I'm going to curse your whole family! Your snake blood might save you, but the curse would simply rebound onto the closest person to you. You'll be alone for the rest of your life!"

The talismans sparked and hissed as I struck them with my paws, causing terrible pain to shoot up my fore-paw. My yowl caused the little boy to rush back in, a tray of food in his hands with a saucer of water.

"Don't worry, Cat-san! I got food and water!"

Feilong laughed. "You don't have to worry about that, Akihito. Tao, do you like him?"

"Yes, Fei-sama!"

"Then, I'll leave his care to you." Feilong then turned to me. "You don't have to worry. Tao likes you, so I'll let you live as the pet of the Liu family. All you have to do is obey. Understand?"

Sticking out my tongue might have been too childish.

* * *

Maybe it was to instil more fear into his cronies or something, but from what I saw, everyone tended to give Feilong way more respect when he received them in the room where my prison stood. Amazing how a few pieces of yellow paper stuck to the bars would restrain me – even if I was kind of pathetic by _youkai_ standards.

"Why don't you turn human?" Feilong offered to me one day, after I'd become stir-crazy enough to dance on my hind legs like those cats depicted in all of Godmother's _ukiyo-e_ prints. "I'll just put my mark on you and let you out of the cage."

"So do I have to stay with you?" I asked.

"Yes."

"What kind of mark?"

"The Baishe tattoo."

"I'll pass," I decided. Godmother would kill me if I got a tattoo. She'd say I was copying the old _tanuki_ Shigaraki.

I was careful never to become human in Feilong's presence after that. He sometimes had that crazy look in his eyes associated with Asami's... Well, I would say it was Asami in general, with a side-helping of _crazed_.

Yet Feilong, at least, talked to me like a human being. Almost everyone else in Baishe eyed me with suspicion, if not outright fear. Feilong's right hand, Yoh, even told me to stay away from their boss. After I'd refused for the fourth time meat laced with rat poison – did they think I was stupid? – Feilong got wind of my hunger strike and its causes.

The boy, Feilong's son Tao, was the only one who treated me with any kindness at all, despite my being the ultimate cause of his parent's injury. Aside from good food, Tao kept talking to me, about what it was like to be me, if I had friends, and so on. Since I was locked in a cage, I found myself entertaining him about _youkai_ life and other facts of _youkai_.

"A _tsukimono-suji_ is a household that employs the ghosts of animals," I was telling Tao in the middle of an indeterminate period of time into my imprisonment. "As a rule, the ghosts' ownership pass from mother to daughter. Foxes, cats, dogs, _tanuki_ are all very popular. So, _tsukimono-suji_ are envied and feared for their ability to steal happiness from others."

"Oh!" Tao clapped his hands. "So... we're like a tsukimono-suji! You're Fei-sama's pet, and before Fei-sama got you, that Asami that stole you from Fei-sama was your _tsukimono-suji_?!"

"Hell no! I'm a wild cat!" I heaved a sigh in an effort to calm down. "Well, it's not that men aren't known to use _tsukimono_ , but remember _onmyō_ theory?"

"The rules of the other world is flipped from this world," Tao nodded.

"God- I mean, someone I know once said, that because men are strong in this world, thus women are the stronger force in the other world," I hurriedly continued. Actually, those who bore the strongest feelings, the strongest oppression in this world would have the force of their emotions fuelling their vengeance, so it was like karmic balance. But it was easy enough for me to explain to a boy that was barely ten.

Tao frowned. "Is that why women would usually hit small people?"1

"How would I know? I've never seen them at it."

"Does it work?"

"If there's a strong feeling behind the curse, it might. Your boss has too many enemies, a curse would really kill him."

"Don't say that about Fei-sama!" Tao defended.

"He's the one who locked me in this cage and kidnapped me from Japan," I pointed out. "Why else would I be here? I wanna get back to Japan!"

Tao's cheeks puffed. He snatched the dish of _charsiew_ buns away from inside my cage and started eating them.

"Oi! Dammit, you brat!" I screeched. "I'm a _youkai_! I'll eat _you_!"

The edges of the cage became wreathed in violet, which flared out as the talismans caught fire. The bun landed on the carpeted floor as Tao fell back with a shriek. I did not mind, nor did I care; I simply threw myself at the bars, pulling my whole body through it.

Tao... In another life, if I had been human, we could've been friends-

"No!" Tao grabbed me, and I panicked.

* * *

That was the second most embarrassing moment of my life.

The first most embarrassing moment of my life...

Well, it started with me trying to decide who to call. It was a toss-up between Godmother and Asami, the bastard.

Hmm... which one had a better chance of answering the phone?

I dialled Asami's number, which had quickly migrated from simply another number filched from the telecomm company to my speed-dial to the depths of my own memory.

"Moshi moshi. _This is Kirishima, responding for Asami._ "

"Kirishima? You mean the _megane_ assistant?" I spoke, ignoring the unpronounceable greeting. "Takaba speaking!"

" _Takaba? You sound... different._ "

"I'm possessing Feilong's boy at the moment. Where's Asami?!"

" _Possession?! Asami-sama is in a recuperative state following a gunshot-_ "

"He got _shot_?!"

"- _when you were sniped and kidnapped by members of the Baishe triad,_ " Kirishima smoothly replied. " _Perhaps you might reconsider your relationship with Asami-sama?_ "

"This is not a relationship!" I yelled, but the shitty _megane_ had hung up halfway through my declaration.

Therefore, that segued into the first most embarrassing moment of my life through an international call made via Feilong's office phone to Godmother.

" _Kai-no-Kuchi Matchmaking._ " My spirits lifted, only to be ended as it continued: " _I'm afraid we aren't available to take your call. Please call back another time or visit us; hours nine-thirty to five-thirty, with exceptions. You may leave a message aft-_ " Insert long beep.

"No!" I slumped on his desk. "Godmother, if you're trying to dodge a customer, don't. It's me, Aki. I'm stranded in Hong Kong and I accidentally possessed this kid- Feilong will _kill_ me! You have to save me, Godmother!"

The chances that she'd hear my message was... well, the three of us – Kou, Takato, and me – had finally convinced her to get an answer-phone in during the Ginza bubble crash. What she'd bought had been antique then, and she was still using the same plastic brick today.

On hindsight, Godmother was better than the Kokkuri-san at the Ichimatsu house, who crashed a laptop just checking Google. She knew that the red light meant a message, but she'd forget to check, and if she remembered to check, her method was to solemnly push buttons at random, in hopes that it would do _something_. Three in ten times that actually resulted in hearing the messages, as opposed to: deleting them; programming unspeakable people into call recognition; or, my favourite, setting the machine's internal time zone to another dimension.

The dial tone resounded like my funeral dirge. I set the phone back into its cradle, groaning. What was I groaning for?

I don't know.

* * *

 _ **Critiquez, s'il vous plaît!**_

 _ **1 Villain hitting, da siu yan, demon exorcising, or petty person beating, is a folk sorcery popular in the Guangdong area of China and Hong Kong. Its purpose is to curse one's enemies using magic. Villain hitting is often considered a humble career, and the ceremony is often performed by older ladies, though some shops sell DIY kits.**_


	9. 八: Matsuba

_**Silvervine**_

 _ **An LLS Production**_

 _ **A/N: I changed my mind. Wednesday is really untenable now, so I'm going to be posting updates on Saturday from now on. – LLS**_

* * *

 **八：** **Matsuba**

Humans were fragile compared to us _youkai_. Yes, even Asami, although Godmother just told me this morning that the Hirasaka Yomotsu finally got back to her.

Since the paper that her message came with was slightly charred, probably from the greasy fire of her exhalations, she didn't find anything. And since the paper had flown itself into Asami's apartment, it was also riddled with one bullet hole.

"I'll tell her not to send her usual messages when I'm here," I told the house's grumpy owner.

"Do that." Asami looked fairly discontent as he glared at the charred _washi_ paper. "Is your Godmother technologically incompetent?"

I held back a laugh. I was standing next to Asami's very valuable coffee maker, and it wouldn't do to break it. "When you've lived about three thousand years, then you can laugh."

Asami sighed, but joined me in the kitchen of his apartment. Everything was warm and sleepy and I was probably going to take a cat-nap. So preoccupied I was with getting some food into my belly, I'd neglected to pay attention to Asami checking his phone.

Bells jingled.

I froze. A chill crept up my spine as the tinny electronic sound echoed the jingle of brass bells.

That... that couldn't be...

The strains of _pipa_ strings being plucked rang.

One-and-two-and-three-and-four, one-and-two-and-three, pause. One-and-two-and-three-and-four, one-and-two-and-three, pause.

Mercifully, Asami stopped before the caterwauling could start. "I didn't know that you could dance that well. Nor did I know that you could dance so well for Feilong."

Uh, he's pissed. "I- have a good reason for that!"

"A good reason for prancing about in water-sleeves, shaking your ass in front of Feilong's clients and singing about a peerless beauty who could fell cities with a look?" Asami might be something to me, but he was also terrifying.

I quickly fell back, paws- I mean, hands positioned to better vault away the moment he broke out the chains.

There's a word for it... machismo! Right, that one.

" _Akihito_." My paws were trapped. "Explain."

I swallowed. "Right, so I accidentally possessed Tao to escape..."

* * *

On hindsight, running out in Tao's body was the dumbest thing I could have done. I was completely lost, the body I'd jacked was too recognisable, and I didn't understand the language. Even if I kept running, soon I hit a body of water. The smell of salt, and pollution, and smoke hit me in the nose, but more of a gentle slap than a punch. Seawater. A sea.

I was totally prepared to jump and swim back to Japan. I'd already jumped into the water when I choked and my limbs locked. The waters of the bay slapped against my chest and face, and bubbles rose to the surface, stealing the air from Tao's body.

No.

No.

No!

I'd lost control, but so had Tao; now, as I exited his body, the polluted water sank down my nose, causing a yowl that drew in more liquid waste down my throat. Something wet and feathery hit me in the face, but also woke me from my stupor. I grabbed Tao, hauling him up a concrete sea wall and gasped as we lay there together.

"What," I spat water out, "were you _thinking_?! Ugh, this is _disgusting_. Yuck!"

"But," Tao joined me, "you aren't leaving."

"Oh yeah? I'm not in your body anymore."

"But I can swim!"

A crow hit me in the face. "Ow!"

"Finally, I found you, Akihito!" Takato folded his wings as he alighted on the ground. "We got your message. Kaigara-san is still stuck with Kou in Korea, so she's putting you with a friend of hers until she's free."

"The crow's talking!" Tao exclaimed.

"Huh?" I was more focused on Takato and the fact that Godmother had apparently gotten the message. "What happened?"

"A bunch of _Hiderigami_ along the Yalu River. Came in with El Niño."

Ah. I nodded. The livelihoods of people might depend less on droughts nowadays, but the ability to bring rain still meant that Godmother's ability to precipitate clouds was in high demand when the spirits of drought started wandering about. No matter what humans might do with things like cloud-seeding.

"Ditch the boy and follow me," Takato impatiently pecked at me.

"I- I can't leave the kid, Takato!" I hissed as a reminder.

"Well, is anyone going to touch him?"

"Why is the crow talking?!" Tao continued.

Takato turned back into his human form, but left his wings spread on his back.

Tao immediately fell silent, awed by the _tengu_.

"Every single weather spirit of the South Sea's been called in, including Kaigara-san," Takato said. "Come on!"

My neck must have been twitching, the way I kept shifting from Tao to Takato. "But what about Tao?"

"What _about_ him?"

"Well, the human world is dangerous for kids anywhere. Even Hong Kong."

Takato hesitated. Takato was a kind personality at heart – all _tengu_ usually had the protection of children at heart. There was a reason for children being spirited away sometimes.1 You really had to work at pissing them off, if you were a cute kid.

"I won't leave!" Tao insisted. "And Fei-sama doesn't want you to leave either, with or without a stupid crow!"

Takato gave a loud crow of frustration. "Excuse you! I'm four centuries old! I'm the third strongest of our Kai-no-Kuchi clan!"

"It's not even a clan, it's just Godmother's base in Yokohama," I rebutted.

"The baby shouldn't be talking back to his brother, Aki-chan~"

"And Kou's the big brother, not you, _stupid crow_!"

"At least I'm not an idiot cat!"

"Well, I'm not a _bird_ brain!"

"Could you two stop arguing?!" Tao was the one to intervene, embarrassingly enough.

Takato looked at me, and then at Tao, and came to a conclusion with ferocious speed. And by ferocious, I mean he grabbed me, slinging me across his back in a fireman's carry as he took to the skies.

"Oi, Takato!" I could not struggle, because we'd all be dead if we fell into the bay again. "What about Tao?"

"Kid's got more sense than you, he'll manage," Takato replied. "Kaigara-san's called her friend in Kowloon. I'm supposed to take you there, and they'll keep you. But you'll have to settle room and board yourself, though she has an arrangement with the Zen clan offshoot..."

"I thought they were all in Japan?!"

"Offshoot. This woman from the Kisha clan apparently managed to survive everything including the Cultural Revolution."

* * *

"So, your Godmother's friend, the Kisha," Asami slowly reiterated, "let you stay with her for room and board in exchange for... busking. In drag. And you succeeded for about a week before..."

"Kisha and her sister, who's still a Chinese lute," I corrected, curving my left arm and moving them slowly. "I already knew the song and dance, but putting them together... well, I don't have the pitch for it."

Slowly, I hummed the song, and then, as I met gold eyes, even in the middle of Asami's kitchen, I could not help but move through the silly steps with the song.

 **北方有佳人** **  
** **绝世而独立** **  
** **一顾倾人城** **  
** **再顾倾人国** **  
** **宁不知倾城与倾国** **  
** **佳人难再得**

 _Běifāng yŏu jiārén  
Juéshì ér dúlì  
Yīgù qīng rén chéng  
Zài gù qīng rén guó  
Níng bùzhī qīngchéng yŭ_ _qīng guó  
Jiārén nán zài dé_

Large arms traced my arms. Large hands captured my paws- I mean, hands again. And something large was probably poking me behind, but I had no need to turn my head to know that his burning gaze was there.

"Do you know the song's meaning, Akihito?"

"That there's a beautiful woman in the north worth giving up a country for?"

A deep chuckle had me furrowing my brows. Surely I haven't screwed this up. This was Godmother's favourite song!

"I prefer to think of the beauty as being undefined in gender," Asami whispered into the shell of my ear. "The kingdom of Macau's casinos to gain you... that's not a bad exchange."

My face ran hotter than usual. Were my ears those of a cat's, they would be twitching with a frisson of joy. "Even if that's why you started fighting with Mikhail?"

Of course, I glossed over most of the details to Asami. Such as the fact that I'd found out about Feilong's emotional breakdown. Of course, Asami and Feilong would never tell me, and the other people involved were dead. Humans say that the dead don't tell tales.

That's...

Well, they do tell tales, at great length, which anyone with the appropriate resources could manage to get. And in Obon, the dead do come back to the living world, which was how I ran into Old Liu by complete coincidence during that first day the doors of the underworld opened.

* * *

Back then, Takato's flight had dropped me across the straits, putting a bit of sea between me and Feilong. He left very quickly after telling me he was going to send Tao back.

The Kisha, Kō Kibi-san, was a very nice hostess. It turns out, my Godmother wasn't exactly _friends_ with Kō-san. It wasn't because they were bitter enemies or something – Kō-san was friendly enough to me. She performed on the street for money.

But I gotta say this, though...

"Can't we do something else?!" I complained to Kō-san on that time she convinced me to dress up and perform next to her. "I look like a cosplayer."

"You look like a young beauty," Kō-san corrected. If I had to describe her, she'd be a dumpy old grandma. Plump and stable, with just enough friendliness in her face and voice to pass in human society.

She wasn't human, of course.

Three thousand years ago, apparently she'd been one of the three demons to bring about the downfall of a dynasty. She'd been worshipped as the second of three sisters – a trio composed of the spirits of a thousand-year-old fox, a nine-headed bird, and a jade _pipa_ ; the youngest of the trio whom she toted around now, waiting for their eldest sister's reincarnation.

And now she was playing accompaniment to me-in-drag.

Life is weird.

"If some pervert tries to grab my ass in public, I won't be responsible," I desperately tried. "I thought you Chinese say that... er... beauty is the source of trouble?"

"Beauty is the source of trouble? No," She'd told me in broken Japanese once. "They said the same thing, that our eldest sister brought down the Shang, and that Yang _Guifei_ (Yōkihi) was responsible for the Tang's downfall. If there was no wretched man, no wretched emperor in the world, a single woman couldn't possibly bring the harm to the country!"

"Ah, Kō-san..."

"You will be young beauty," she patted me on the hand, smiling vaguely at nothing in particular. "Dance tomorrow."

The thing is, age commanded respect amongst the _youkai_. That was why Godmother could command so much respect in Japan despite being an outsider – three thousand years was a very long time to survive, especially with all the odds stacked against them. Old and doddery _youkai_ might seem pitiful, but they could easily kill weak young like myself. And they were creepy – Kō-san belonged to the generation of demons who had their fun by slaughtering whole villages or leaving random curses. Looking at her leer was enough to convince me that a bit of fun wouldn't be... amiss. Maybe, if she didn't creep me out so much, I'd have protested being in public a week barely after Takato's rescue.

Plus, I missed the sun, too.

Even if I had to see it in this flowy costume and whatever Kō-san did to my hair to make it so long! Why does everyone over a thousand years old want to play Cinderella with me?!

Kō-san passed me off as Thai-Chinese due to my exotic looks – but then, judging from the charm laden in her voice, she could've convinced a tax inspector to forego tax collection for the next decade. With her neighbours settled, and with me smiling stupidly at them, we set to performing at a public stage – one of those little parks in the walled city.

According to Godmother, the Beauty Song was a dance that emphasised the dancer's grace. It had to be sylph-like – and by being able to stand on my toes naturally, I had an advantage in dancing it, and a few others.

Kō-san was really good at playing the _pipa_. She could do everything from 'Ambushed from Ten Sides' to 'Dance of the Yi People' – and a few more modern pieces. She'd even done 'Sakura Sakura' on the _pipa_.

We'd attracted a sizeable crowd when we played during the sunrise and sunset periods. These times being the most active for those of our world, we'd received plenty of people who dropped donations into Kō-san's _pipa_ case.

There had been humans too, but none that really stood out until the blond man.

"Don't talk," Kō-san spoke in Japanese over the pipa strings, just barely within my range of hearing.

In the middle of another quick-step, I gasped in question.

"Nothing good about that guy. He's just looking because it's a blond kid doing Chinese dance."

Since he was built like a bear, I understood. And then Kō-san said "Improvise," and I was too busy trying to adapt to all her changes in tempo. Finally, though, Kō-san had to stop or reveal her inhuman capability to keep playing on end, and I found myself dropping into the ending posture and facing away from the blond guy – who was wearing a three-piece suit in summer.

I was right; he was built like a bear, and possibly he was one. Something about him would strike people, I imagine – demons would find him comfortable, since he felt too different from normal people.

I inhaled. Human.

...Where are all these dangerous humans coming from?!

He said something, I don't know what. He changed languages again, and I stared at him some more. He changed languages, at which point I turned towards Kō-san.

Kō-san said something to him. He nodded, and then reached into his pocket. He pulled out his wallet, and pulled a sizeable chunk of notes and dropped it in. Then, from his wallet, he pulled out more notes and said something to Kō-san.

"He said, if we perform for him in the evening in three days, we get ten thousand dollars and dinner on his tab," Kō-san airily pronounced. She said something to him, and the blond man nodded, crestfallen. He still dropped more cash into the _pipa_ case anyway.

Kō-san waited until he'd left before she immediately put her _pipa_ back into the case, latching it with the money. "Be careful."

"A- Ah?!"

"Didn't you listen, boy? We need to be careful."

We went back to Kō-san's tiny and Spartan apartment. It was very unlike my Godmother's bases, but I suppose when you're hiding from a goddess, you want the morass of humanity's petty evils to hide your demonic aura.

Nothing happened for two days, except a gathering of more ghosts than usual. The third day, Kō-san was frowning as she checked the weather and peered around our usual performing spot.

"What kind of _youkai_ did you say you were?"

" _Bakeneko_."

"Found a home yet?"

"Does Godmother count?"

"No." Kō-san contemplated the area. "Too close to seventh month. If you keep performing..."

I didn't understand it then. On hindsight, it should have been obvious. Godmother explained later that in Chinese culture, the fifteenth day of the seventh month in their lunar calendar is when the gates of Heaven and Hell open, and the seventh month in general is regarded as the Ghost Month, in which ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out from the lower realm.

Basically, it's Kyu-Bon.2

A _nekomata_ surrounded by the ghosts of the dead was just asking for a zombie re-enactment. Kō-san was being cautious, especially since it was so close to that time of the year.

Kō-san made the decision to stay inside. She taught me Chinese dice games, including the weird one called _Pai Gow_. I think I preferred Cho Han, myself. Sunset and dinner had already passed before the doorbell rang.

"Xiaoqiu, the door."

Apparently my name was hard for her to pronounce. So she just called me that name – little Aki. And since she was dealing with the dishes that I didn't want to do – brr, _water_ – I answered the door only after affixing the chain on it.

The blond guy was here. He was smiling, and he said something that belied the gun muzzle currently aimed at the chain.

"Kō-san!" I shouted as the gun went off and I threw myself back.

A china plate flew across the room, snapping easily into the man's hand and disarming him. Another one brained the guy actually holding the gun – not the first Blond Guy, who was now holding up his hands in a gesture of surrender when faced with angry old ladies.

Kō-san gave a shout as she came out of the kitchen, soapy dishes stacked high as makeshift projectiles. Blond Guy spoke some more, and it sounded more like a one-sided proposal on his part until he yelled back, slapped a roll of notes into her hand, and his men – all ten of them – pulled me out and dragged my struggling body into a large car.

"Xiaoqiu!" I heard Kō-san shout over the door's slam, but she was apparently unable or unwilling to break cover.

The back of this car was enough to have two seats facing each other, like Asami's. The first blond guy and the actual shooter sat opposite me. First blond guy said something, and the glum-faced shooter spoke some more in a different language. They spoke some more unintelligible words until I couldn't hold back anymore.

"Who are you?" I finally asked.

"Finally, something we can use," the shooter sighed. He was stoic enough to make the first blond guy look foppish, on closer examination. "You're Japanese? And apparently Mikhail said that you can do Chinese dance."

"Some."

The first blond guy said some more, and amongst them I caught one word: _Feilong._

Stoic guy was faster than me in slamming down the child-safe lock on the car door, but not fast enough to stop the window from shattering. I threw myself out; my clothes might have gotten torn, but at least I had all four limbs intact before I climbed the façade of Kowloon's buildings. Again, I found myself racing for the horizon, to the sight of the sea, towards Japan, towards-

More yelling, and tyres screeched. I raced up one building façade only with jumping and climbing. I hadn't been joking about hanging from buildings with my fingertips, you know. I had no idea what these guys wanted with me. Did Feilong sell me out?

These guys couldn't be after my dancing. And I don't care what Asami said, normal people don't just kidnap people they love.

So, best chances were that they were hired by Feilong.

I hit the rooftops feet-first, and continued running until I heard the screech of a bird and scratchings on my left arm, which caused me to yell in pain and scratch the other back. A bird about two metres tall and with golden plumage kept hovering about me, fiercely attacking even as I ran and jumped from roof to roof. The bird tackled me, at which point I was forced to concede that this was not an ordinary bird. I transformed into a cat, and then _he_ transformed.

"Fuck, you're..." Shooter had my skull pinned to the ground, no matter how I struggled. Flexibility just didn't help that much to squirm out of his grasp. "Supernatural. I thought it was Misha just being an idiot over a pretty face, he doesn't even go for brats..."

Cold iron pressed on my head. "Mikhail can't find out... sorry, brat."

I struggled harder, but this was an older supernatural. His hands were as hard as bone – as talons, to be honest. He was a bird of some sort, with command of fire, and he was going to kill me.

I couldn't die. No... I didn't want to die. Even in this world where you could die without a reason, I didn't want to die, I wanted- I wanted-

I wanted to go home.

Another gun report, and the hand on my head slacked, allowing me to run home- and get obstructed by a pair of legs.

"So, the Arbatov right hand, Yuri, is also not human," Feilong commented as he grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and tossed me into, of all things, a pet carrier. I hissed and cried and climbed until I hit the paper-covered ends that it shocked me. "Takaba was able to endure to endure a bullet to the heart with no trouble. I wonder how you'd fare."

Shooter, now named Yuri, snarled back. "He's a demon, Feilong!"

"I know." Feilong pointed a gun at him, thumbing back a lever. "So are you. _So am I_."

Then he pulled the trigger.

All of that trouble, and I'd still ended up with Feilong. Why couldn't Godmother just drop me back into Japan?

* * *

 _ **Critiquez, s'il vous plaît!**_

 _ **1\. Kamikakushi means "spirited away". Kamikakushi is used to refer to the mysterious disappearance or death of a person that happens when an angered god takes a person away. In pre-modern Japan children would often disappear in this way and be rediscovered several days later in a shrine or temple, consistently telling a story of being swept away by a god.**_

 _ **2\. Obon or just Bon is a Japanese Buddhist custom to honour the spirits of one's ancestors. This Buddhist-Confucian custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday during which people return to ancestral family places and visit and clean their ancestors' graves, and when the spirits of ancestors are supposed to revisit the household altars. The festival of Obon lasts for three days; however its starting date varies within different regions of Japan. When the lunar calendar was changed to the Gregorian calendar at the beginning of the Meiji era, the localities in Japan reacted differently and this resulted in three different times of Obon:**_

 _ **\- "Shichigatsu Bon" (Bon in July) is based on the solar calendar and is celebrated around 15 July in eastern Japan (Kantō region such as Tokyo, Yokohama and the Tohoku region), coinciding with Chūgen.**_

 _ **-"Hachigatsu Bon" (Bon in August) is based on the lunar calendar, is celebrated around the 15th of August and is the most commonly celebrated time.**_

 _ **-"Kyu-Bon" (Old Bon) is celebrated on the 15th day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, and so differs each year. "Kyu-Bon" is celebrated in areas like the northern part of the Kantō region, Chūgoku region, Shikoku, and the Okinawa Prefecture. These three days are not listed as public holidays but it is customary that people are given leave.**_


	10. 九: Asagi

_**Silvervine**_

 _ **An LLS Production**_

* * *

 **九：** **Asagi**

I haven't told Asami about Old Liu, or Yan. For one thing, that was stuff that was over and done with. For another thing, I had no idea how he'd handle the revelation. Feilong certainly seemed to turn even more bonkers.

Okay, after Feilong shot the flaming Russian bird-human, my pet carrier had been tossed into a storeroom once Feilong reached back to his base. It smelt musty, and I sensed the rot associated with drains and easily hosed-down places. This was where interrogations took place, I imagined.

"You're new here. What're you in for?" I asked the old guy in the wheelchair next to me.

The old guy gave me a level look, and sighed. "A talking cat shouldn't scare me anymore. You're from Japan, boy?"

"Born and bred, mister. But that long-hair _changshan_ bastard Feilong kidnapped me, so here I am," I sighed, careful not to touch the bars. "Are you visiting family?"

"I guess you could say that," the old man sighed. "The... Feilong is my son. I took the chance to come and see him, but he's such a bright boy. I worry about him, you know. That people from our side – not his world, our world – would harm him."

"He's got very strong white snake blood, don't worry about that," I replied.

"What do you mean?"

I explained what Godmother said about Feilong's ancestry. It seemed very important at that time. The old man apparently thought so, depending on the strange look on his face. "Fei... my son would rather...?"

"And now he kidnapped me because he thinks he can become a demon," I sighed. "It's so troublesome. I just got caught after escaping and now he's just leaving me here to stew."

"I think I can help you with that," the old man offered.

"Oh?" I perked up.

"But you must help me to... contact... Fei."

I set my head back down and started to groom. "Hell no. He'll come sooner or later. Either Tao or him."

"What about the rest of his men?"

"They're too scared of ghosts and ghouls." I stopped grooming for a bit. "Aren't you stuck here too? Shouldn't you know these things?"

"No, I've only managed yearly visits since... seven years ago," he recounted. "Perhaps, if things were different... no, perhaps I should have made it clear from the start. They can't see me anyway. Perhaps it's best for them not to think about the world beyond the present, but I must face Fei at all costs."

I was beginning to get a bad feeling. "Erm... sorry for asking such an awkward question, but what is your relation to Feilong?"

"Ah, I'm Liu Yan, Feilong's father," the old man smiled at me. "Just call me Old Liu, everyone does that! I died seven years ago, and such things happen, especially between Fei, my other son Yanzhui and that Japanese bastard."

"That sounds tough, mister."

"You're right. It's enough to break an old man's heart..." Old Liu then looked at me. "Will you help an old ghost talk to him?"

"You're here for Chūgen, talk to him yourself!" I yelled, throwing myself back down in a huff of errant frustration in the face of Old Liu's enthusiasm.

"I can't get close to him," the old man admitted. "Now that you've told me it's his blood, I feel both relieved and sad. None of the vengeful ghosts that he has killed will ever come after him, but none of the people who treasure him can come after him either. Even his house is so pristine that I can only dwell in this room, which is the only place where blood has been shed in the house."

"Your guys must have been very thorough." I commented.

"No, it's a new building."

I could have face-palmed. I totally fell into that trap, didn't I?

"Who are you talking to, Akihito?" Tao ran into the room, looking around. He'd changed to a sleeveless top and black pants, although all his clothes still sported the Chinese knot-buttons. "Is your crow friend here too?"

"Takato?" I asked.

"Yep! Fei-sama was so surprised when he flew me back!"

I'd say. That must have been humiliating for Takato. "Oh."

"So, who are you talking to?"

"I'm talking to your grandfather."

"My... grandfather?" Tao blinked, looking around. "There's no one around."

"Oh, don't you know?" I lowered the pitch of my voice. "It's the _Seventh Month_ right now. For one month, the doors of Heaven and Hell are open and the ghosts of the dead come to the human world. Your grandfather has come to see his first grandson~"

"What are you doing? He's just a kid," Old Liu sighed, moving to place his hand on Tao's bare shoulder. Since ghosts tend to absorb heat wherever they went, I'd imagine Tao to be feeling cold only at one shoulder.

"Oh, what's that, mister?" I pretended to be listening to an invisible speaker, though I was actually acting to watch Tao's face pale and his smile turn even more nervous. "You're so happy with your grandson, you want to follow him around? Don't worry. This grandson of yours is very easily _possessed_."

"GHOST!" The kid ran out screaming.

Old Liu looked at me as I started laughing, awash in Tao's fear. "You're terrible."

"I'm a monster cat." I pointed towards the talismans. "Besides, this is the fastest way to summon Feilong, right?"

"Hmm..." the old man peered around. "You're right."

* * *

Sure enough, Feilong came flying into the room, gun in hand with Tao following him behind. The gun was levelled at me, predictably.

"I have spent four days tracking you since reports of a blond-haired dancer was reported in the Kowloon area," he hissed. "If Mikhail ever found out what you were, he'd have dissected you, Takaba. And when I saved you from Mikhail, the greatest irritation ever since he took an interest outside of the frozen hell of Russia, you repaid me by frightening Tao. Shooting you right now would be like shooting fish in a barrel."

"You think I want to be here either?!" I yelled back. "It's Chūgen! Right now all the summer festivals would've opened and I'll be celebrating Obon! Food, drink, the chaos of the Hyakki Yagyō all in one place, so why do I have to stay stuck here in Hong Kong?! If Tao is scared, fine, but you can't blame me if your house is fucking haunted!"

"Shut up!" Feilong barked. "Do you know what claiming that ghosts exist to men who kill for a living would do?!"

By the simple rule of the carrot and the stick, I doubted that anyone would have stayed in such a violent lifestyle if they knew exactly what went on in East Asian Hell. But the rule here was to hurt him back.

I was a _youkai_. He was a human. I scared humans.

"Huh? What's that got to do with them?" I bared my teeth. "I didn't think you cared about _anyone_ , Feilong, beside yourself and Asami. Your papa's gonna cry for you."

"Asami?" Old Liu echoed, unheard by the dangerous guy with the gun. "Now why is _he_ involved? Besides that, a little cat shouldn't risk getting shot, you know."

I was actually banking on the bullet to break a small hole in the talisman barrier. I saw Feilong's hand twitch. He wanted to shoot me. Alright, it'll hurt like a bitch, but I'd have another chance at escape, and it was harder for them to catch a cat with the rational abilities of a human, than compared to a human-sized human. No, wait, maybe that was wrong, because humans could literally eat anything.

The hammer thumbed back. Feilong was prepared to shoot me. Behind him, Tao clung to his jacket hem, wide dark eyes watery with tears.

Sorry, Tao.

"He couldn't have come back." Feilong took a deep breath. "He _couldn't_ have."

"It's August, right?" I commented. "Lots of people burning paper goods, burning incense and candles, setting out oblations... return my summer vacation, you idiot!"

Feilong might be a dumbass, but he certainly proved to be fast at catching up. "Z- _Zhongyuan_? Chūgen?"

Shit. Why did I have to say that? I'd rather have Feilong mad at me than looking at me like... well, like I'd just killed Tao and the rest of his men, too. "There's no way that Asami could have told you..."

Old Liu was relaying more details. "'You are unmistakably my son, my pride'," I quoted after Old Liu. "'Whatever anyone may say, that, at least, will not change. Feilong... let me see your face'."

The gun clattered to the ground. Feilong's hands kept shaking, and then he turned on his heel and bodily dragged Tao out of the room at top speed.

...maybe I scared him too much. "Uhm... I might have overplayed my hand, mister."

"It can't be helped," Old Liu replied in a businesslike manner, but he was still scratching at the bleeding gunshot wound on his torso that made me wince just looking at it.

* * *

Feilong's copy of the Chinese _Book of Songs_ fluttered to the ground. I'd been reading some of the simpler couplets that Godmother had taught me – both the Old and young Lius had been trying to ascertain the exact extent of my education, when one of the Baishe men came in. Somehow, that man had barely flinched at my presence – he was more occupied with his Boss reading to the ancestral altar.

Feilong took the phone, listening for a moment. "Asami...!"

Did I want to listen? I cocked my head closer, letting my hearing do the work.

" _...in my hands right now. To lose your cool over something like this, you really haven't changed._ "

"—! I see. As you haven't shown yourself since Japan, I figured that you didn't want the stray cat anymore." Feilong bit back. "It seems you really don't care about his life."

" _I heard that Mikhail Arbatov wants this deed. If I give it to him, I'm sure that it'll create a good route for us._ "

"If you'd called me a month before, my reaction would have been different," Feilong replied. "Since you called me now, I wish you the best of luck, Asami. May you live in _interesting_ times."

Feilong hung up, staring at the phone before he sighed. "...Akihito."

I flinched, but turned to face him.

"Will you stay with me from now on?"

"Huh? Wha?!" I demanded. "What are you saying now?! You're the one who kidnapped me! Are all humans as illogical as you?"

"He's gotten hold of my weakness to threaten me," Feilong dismissed. "But, the real weakness... my real weakness... has come home for this month. It's so strange, you know. I think I would've cared, but now... now I can plan a counter-attack with no regrets. It's because of you, Akihito."

"Me?!"

"I don't want to be human," Feilong whispered. "You demons can change forms, know magic and do anything you wish. I want to be a demon."

"...but you are human," I replied, slightly afraid. Because, you see, some _youkai_ used to be human. The Bridge Princess of Uji. Kiyohime. _Hannya_. Hone-onna. Dorotabō.

"Father, I am sorry," Feilong whispered, putting down his teacup in favour of the harder stuff. "I just can't muster up the effort right now."

"It is I who should apologise, my son," Old Liu told his son, who couldn't hear him. "If you can find it in yourself to let go, then let go. If you cannot, then don't."

The expensive crystal-cut glass fell to the floor and shattered.

"...father? Was that you?"

"Boss!" More men in black suits were already pouring in. "Are you alright?"

"It's alright. I'm fine, I just dropped a glass." Feilong dismissed them all. When the room was emptied of subordinates at last, Feilong sank back into his chair. "Akihito, I don't think I'll drink today. Make some tea."

"I'm not your parlour maid," I grumbled, but I kept shooting looks at Old Liu, the sad old ghost, as I made the tea. _Pu-er_ , because it was late and he needed sleep. Only when he got the cup did I set out to clean up the shards.

"You could be," Feilong mused. "You have been honest and upfront about things, even if they are out of this world. At this point I'll trust a parlour maid and a cat over my men. Stay by my side."

"You're cutting off your nose to spite your face at this rate," I whispered. "The deed belongs to Old Liu, right? And he left it to you? So isn't it important? I'm not just saying this because I wanna go home, but the deed is something entrusted to you, right? Don't you humans hold that as valuable?"

"The people are more important," Feilong replied. "You are needed with me to see Father. In the absence of Yanzhui, someone must burn offerings for him."

"Who's Yanzhui?"

"Ah, yes," Old Liu glumly nodded. "My idiot son who got himself landed in Avīci Hell."

"Holy fuck, what did he do?!" I shouted in response to Old Liu's statement.

"...patricide."

"So... your elder son killed you, and- how does Asami fit into this picture?" I hadn't realised that I'd spoken that aloud until Feilong rounded on me.

"What do you mean?!"

I looked into Feilong's wild, dark eyes, and I swallowed. With me as a translator, Old Liu began to relate the entire series of events that ended with a son shooting his father out of jealousy and Asami shooting the son, and then another father shooting his son and generally complicated events with some guy called Toh.

Holy shit. This is ridiculous. What kind of tragedy after tragedy is this crap?!

* * *

Because I'd missed the Kanto celebrations during my kidnapping to Hong Kong, I'd gotten started for the August celebrations. So, I might have used up all the skewers in Asami's kitchen.

Believe me, it's an improvement. This is a guy who probably thinks alcohol is a food group.

Anyway, morning dawned as I made breakfast for two. My clear sight greeted a hastily assembled cucumber horse. I was making an eggplant cow when Asami appeared, having just taken a morning shower.

He was halfway through donning a cotton singlet, but he stopped and watched me.

"What is... _that_?"

"It's a cucumber horse, Asami."

"It looks like a terrible art project."

Asami was giving my cucumber horse a look bordering the line of being endearing and irritating. "Why are you defacing fruits so early in the morning?"

"You've never done- course you've never done them," I sighed, correcting myself. "Well, cucumber horses and eggplant cows are standard prep for Obon. You want your ancestors to come home fast, on the horse, and you want them to leave slowly, on the cow."

He looked slightly lost.

"Unless... you don't even know what's Obon?" I was beginning to feel pity for this guy who'd never celebrated what, to me, was the entirety of summer vacations.

"I've never seen it celebrated in... such a manner," Asami replied. "I do know what's _Bon-odori_.1 I'm just curious that you do... _these_. Even when you don't have a blood family. At least, one that's mortal."

"My Godmother has friends," I replied. "One of them, Takaba-san, gave me his name so that I could go to school, get a job, and live as a human. He doesn't have a family, so I'm doing these for him."

Asami sat down at his dining table, taking one of the prepared breakfast plates. I'd tried Japanese this time – my portion was very clear, depending on which plate had the spring onions. Asami immediately took the one with spring onions. "Alright. Do you need anything else?"

"No, I'll just set up an altar for him at my apartment later."

Asami paused mid-bite. He swallowed. "The one that your landlord packed all your stuff up to let out?"

I scowled at him. "I'll move back there."

"Move here."

"Asami, my lease is finished in-" I calculated, "-two years and three months."

So that meant... Was it only three months since we first met? It sure felt like forever.

"And there's the _nekomata_ issue, too," I felt compelled to add. "By taking me in, you'll become a _tsukimono-suji_. I'll be haunting you for the rest of your life and beyond."

Asami gave me a blank look. I might still find him incomprehensible, but I could tell that this was, somehow, a look far worse than him invading Aokigahara after an injured cat. "You're doing arts and crafts with my groceries. I think we've gotten somewhere beyond that stage."

"Excuse you, I'm not a pet!" I retorted, setting down the aubergine cow with more force than I'd intended.

"Feilong apparently disagreed."

"That's because of you, as always," I scowled. "I'm so lucky it was the Seventh Month over there."

"Does that have a special meaning?"

"Well, from our point of view, it's the demonic version of summer vacation." I counted. "So there's plenty of ghosts roaming the mortal world. For a Triad, those guys are surprisingly big on not killing during this time."

Asami paused, trying to wrap his head around the concept before he gave a bark of laughter. "I can see the logic in trying to avoid vengeful ghosts. A talking cat is one thing, but it invites... suspicions about the ontological nature of Hell."

"Really?" I asked. "No wonder Tao kept asking so many questions."

* * *

"Does being in Jigoku hurt?"

"Uh, I've never been there," I honestly replied to Tao's innocent question.

I'd forgotten the next most irritating things about humans. It's not the multitude of scents, or the hypocrisy of their society, or their weak bodies and reliance on tools to get the job done. It's that they're so damn curious about a world which is secretive by tradition and necessity. Tao sticking ice cream sticks into his cucumbers notwithstanding.

I'd been let out of the pet carrier on the condition of good behaviour. Then a can of paint had been mysteriously upended on it, and now I was just hanging around as a feline intermediary between Old Liu and Liu Feilong. The father-son conversation would have been heart-warming if I wasn't stuck relaying words at Feilong's convenience. Plus, since now he had a viable reason to keep me around, Feilong's stares had become super creepy.

"Japanese customs are amazing," Tao had finally fixed a cucumber horse once I'd transformed to human form and showed him. "Do spirits really ride this?"

"Well, it's a pun," I replied. "Godmother made it move before?"

Tao's eyes grew even bigger as he looked from the cucumber horse to me. "You can make it _move_?!"

"I've seen it done, and Godmother taught me the basic principle. I need top-quality rice wine-"

I'd overplayed my hand. Tao had supplied whatever I needed, and then I stood in front of the cucumber horse in Feilong's kitchen, racking my brains for the Steps of Yu dance.2 Walking, walking, get injured, lame in one foot, continuing on to restore order, invoke new life-

I took a sip of the rice wine and blew.

I really hadn't expected anything to happen. For one, it was probably the most haphazard _shikigami_ creation ever. For another, I'd only been intending for it to twitch a bit. So the scream that echoed around the kitchen could have been Tao or me.

"Cool!" Tao exclaimed as the cucumber gave a whinny and started trotting around the table on stubby, unbending legs of ice cream sticks.

I watched as the cucumber horse reared up on its hind legs, got too high, and toppled back.

...holy fuck.

Feilong had more or less the same reaction when the cucumber horse nosed around the table and he'd just walked into the kitchen.

"Fei-sama! Akihito made the horse move!"

"So he did." Feilong glared at the cucumber horse, and it reared up, shuddered, and fell off of the table, where being broken on impact shattered its rather short veggie life. From his sleeve, he pulled a piece of paper. "Does this work?"

"The old mister is still here, what are you doing...?" I took the paper, frowning at the torii sign made in red ink at the top.

"...sorry, Kokkuri-sama doesn't do service beyond the Japanese archipelago-"

"I mean for talking to Father."

My hand flew to my mouth. I hadn't expected that. "You... You're actually a good son-"

"What's that supposed to mean, Takaba?!" A vein pulsed at his temple. "I would prefer not to have you in my conversations with my father."

Yeah, humans and their curiosity would probably kill me first. "It's only been three days!"

"It's not like every grieving family gets a chance to make up with their late family, is it?"

"I... don't know."

Fourth day... still the first week of August. Time was crawling slowly, while I was trapped in Hong Kong for however long it took for Godmother to leave the Yalu and spirit me back to Japan.

"Four days less to spend with Father, yes," Feilong's eyes narrowed. "Tao, if you can guarantee Akihito's behaviour for the next... twenty-six days, I'll... send you to Disneyland."

"Really, Fei-sama?!"

"Yes."

"Why the hell is my behaviour compulsory?" I complained.

"You're not going to misbehave," Feilong's expression turned serious. "Not as long as I have that woman who sheltered you as a hostage. And the reason you're here is apparently because Father gets stronger with you around."

Then his eyes turned contemplative as he leant towards me. "And you're going to remain in human form for the rest of your stay."

The pad of one finger stroked my cheek, and I was getting the willies again.

"Your skin is so smooth," he murmured.

Behind him, Old Liu shook his head. "Sorry," the old ghost mouthed.

* * *

Godmother said that the lineage of Haku Sotei is blessed with talent, but cursed with an unpredictable romantic life as a result. Granted, she said that to explain why the head of the Baishe became so fucking _crazy_. As in, crazy enough to imprison not one, but _two_ demons in his house.

"These talismans are probably Duanmu work," Kō-san commented as I paced back and forth in front of her jail cell. It was my improvised cage, except the previously burnt talismans had been renewed and replaced. "They're extremely strong."

"Kō-san, are you alright?"

"I'm alright, Xiaoqiu. That white snake boy has much to learn before his blood can harm me." Kō-san looked towards certain talismans that, instead of black ink, had been drawn with rust-coloured ink that smelt like... blood. "How ruthless."

"I'm sorry for getting you involved in this."

"No, I should be sorry. I thought it was safe, that they wouldn't notice you in this great city... it was my mistake." Kō-san admitted. "That Jiang, what was she thinking? She didn't even teach you dancing. You can't even conjure fire."

"I..." I sighed. "You're right. She only taught me dancing. What use is dancing when I can't even get you out of here?"

But Kō-san was no longer listening. She was instead playing on the _pipa_ , each note eerie and haunting. I left when it was clear that Kō-san wasn't going to pay attention to me.

"Dance," she said before I could reach for the door.

"H- Huh?"

"The first dances she taught you," Kō-san stopped playing. "That Jiang is the same as her master; not a single move made without calculating in advance. For a troublemaker like you, she must have left you some method of evasion."

"Huh? Oh," I started to move through the ritual steps in time as Kō-san started playing again. One rotation, two rotation, and then I realised that Kō-san was playing in canon – repeating the same motif over and over and over-

Kō-san reached through the bars and gave me a hard push. It was so hard, I fell against the door and landed flat on my back.

"Ow!" I complained. "What was that- for...?"

For I realised, I was now on the other side of the door from Kō-san.

"How did I...? The _fuck_?!"

"I knew it!" Kō-san cackling could be heard on the other side where I had been previously. "Jiang Beike, you bitch!"

And she kind of segued off into Chinese, but I was too distracted by the fact that yes, my Godmother had taught me a magic dance and _didn't even tell me it was magic_.

Who _does_ that?!

I was so lost in my head, I haven't even noticed that everyone was giving me a wide berth until Tao found and dragged me to Feilong's library – and yes, I did mean the big room with books.

"Akihito! Let's play Monopoly!"

"...huh?"

* * *

 _ **Critiquez, s'il vous plaît!**_

 **1 Bon-odori is a style of dancing performed during Obon. Originally a Nenbutsu folk dance to welcome the spirits of the dead, the style of celebration varies in many aspects from region to region.**

 **2 Yubu, translated as Pace(s) of Yu or Step(s) of Yu, is the basic mystic dance step of religious Taoism. This ancient walking or dancing technique typically involves dragging one foot after another, and is explained in reference to the legendary Yu the Great, who became lame on one side of his body from exerting himself while establishing order in the world after the Great Flood.**


	11. 十: Sumire

_**Silvervine**_

 _ **An LLS Production**_

* * *

 **十** **：** **Sumire**

Anyway, the day before I gained a really hard imprint of the goddamn Monopoly boot on my lower back, Feilong had to leave on business – and tomb-visiting, for the other Liu who's mysteriously missing so far. He'd left Yoh in charge, and Yoh was the kind of stickler that followed you everywhere. Even right outside the showers. You couldn't faze the man with anything. It's both emasculating _and_ safe.

Humans can inspire such paradoxical reactions.

"Feilong says he's got a hangover," I reported to the guy with the face of stone when I was awake enough to get out of the shower. "Tao's at school, so someone has to look after him."

"...Takaba. Did you sleep in the Boss' quarters last night?"

I started in shock, having just started to dry my hair. "There's nothing I can do about it! He made me stay until he was drunk off his ass." Because drowning in the bath would have been a terrible end for anyone, and I ended up taking a catnap too many at the foot of his bed after he'd fallen asleep. "Anyway, weren't you outside the whole time?"

"You should not get too close to the Boss," Yoh advised. "I won't be able to help you if you can't bring yourself to leave. The... former Boss' presence might be a deterrent, but he's only here for a month."

"I don't know and I don't give a damn!" I hissed back, pulling my shirt on. "You know what I'm enduring here, so you've got a lot of nerve saying that! Do you want to get eaten?"

Yoh took a step back. "...put your clothes on."

"Fuck you." But I pulled them on anyway.

"Do you want to go home to Asami?"

I looked up. "...Japan...?!"

"For us, there's no telling when a war would break out if you remained here. You should have completely escaped Hong Kong beforehand," Yoh told me. "Except that old lady you were with had to parade you and get Arbatov's attention. Where did she go, anyway?"

I continued to rub the towel against my scalp, nodding. "That makes no sense. Kō-san... did that deliberately. It couldn't be for the money."

"How do you know?"

"When you've seen the rise and fall of empires, using human currency for anything is superfluous." There were still _youkai_ who were using _kōban_. And when you've helped establish or topple a country, your reputation's good enough to take to _youkai_ banks. That's why Godmother's credit was always so damn full.

"But can't you let us escape?" I pleaded with Yoh. "Kō-san got dragged into this because of me in the first place."

"...you have no idea what the punishment for betrayal is."

"I'm not his cat, I'm not betraying anything!" I snapped back, rushing to move but recalling my irritated ass.

"And, he cannot let you go. Not when you're the main link between him and the former Boss Liu." Yoh admitted. "The Liu family and Asami... had a past that ended in the nearly everyone of the Lius except Boss dead, and with Boss in prison for wilful murder."

That was the kind of drama that precedes elaborate and horrific revenge tragedies. No wonder Old Liu didn't want to say too much – if the candidness of being in the land of the Yellow Springs for seven years wasn't enough to loosen his tongue, nothing would. "Yeah, I don't think he would, too."

"You could have remained silent about all of this," Yoh reflected as I walked away from the bathroom. "Ghosts don't need to exist in this world of humans. Neither do demons."

I stopped as the rubbing of steel on leather echoed in my ears.

"Is it true that you want to become human?"

I had no reply for him. "That dream is far from me."

"The old woman in the cellar said..." Yoh's breath caught, "-that when the two worlds meet, humans and demons can switch places. You can become human... and he can become demon. He can live forever, and do anything he wants. All he needs to do is give up his heart."

I didn't want to admit it then. I still don't want to admit it. But Kō-san... Kō-san had used my vulnerable state to get to Feilong through me. It didn't matter who was after me – she had known that she would be dragged to the presence of a Triad boss sooner or later if she associated in public with me, and she did it for the chief pleasure of old demons: power and manipulation. "A new entry into the otherworld would have to depend on an older demon for guidance. It would give her power over him. Is that what you're afraid of, Yoh?"

"No! I would rather see Feilong-sama happy, and alive, and...!" Yoh sighed. "If you wish to be human, I'll give you my heart. Please don't take Feilong-sama's heart. Let him live."

"Being human... yes, being human is great," I commented. "Humans can go anywhere, can remain wilfully blind to the world, can occupy themselves about the way the world ought to be. Their laws are made and set on a whim, and their rules exist mainly as fetters for their own misdeeds. The rule of the human is to change their environment around them – there is no adaptation for them. They are strong, but they are also weak, and that is why they must trust that fate will treat them well."

But that is not a path I can take.

That is not a path that will let me walk freely, unhindered... that is not a path that will answer why did I become human, will it?

"I envy Feilong," I told a stunned Yoh. "If such a horrible human being can still have someone who loves him enough to die for him, why does he want to be anything else?"

I had lunch with the Lius later – three generations of them. The oldest kept tapping, the middle kept listening to the taps, and the youngest kept babbling to his father and grandfather.

Here I was, looking in from the outside – the family pet.

"Akihito!" Tao was talking again.

I started, focusing on him now.

"We'll be visiting _Yéyé_ this afternoon. Do you want to come along?"

"It's your family, Tao." I spoke as the silence stretched. "Outsiders shouldn't be present."

* * *

I've never played Monopoly until Tao, so I indulged Tao. So did every single one of the Lius, both the alive one and the dead one – if the rather slow self-moving iron was any indication.

I'd chosen the wheelbarrow,1 and I'd kept giggling until Tao asked me why. That was about the time that Tao's chosen piece, the battleship, fell from his hand – he was too busy laughing. Feilong had taken the automobile, and was currently laying claim to the purple, orange and red bits of the board. That left Old Liu the light blue and brown bits, and Tao managed to get three of the four railways.

"Haven't you ever heard about 'giving gold coins to a cat'2?" I asked when I landed in jail for the third time.

"It's 'giving gold coins to a prostitute, and _matatabi_ to a cat'," Feilong shot back at me. "Which is an expression meaning to make effective use of what you have. Make a note of that, Tao."

"Yes, Fei-sama!" Tao shivered with a brush of cold. "Yes, _yéyé!_ "

Tao wasn't looking at Feilong. He never caught the flash of pain and guilt mixed with relief that I saw. I only got the reason for that face when Tao finally gave in and went to bed, leaving us adults – man, cat and ghost – alone for a talk.

"Everyone," Feilong finally stated. "We'd agreed about Tao needing to meet his grandfather for the month of Obon. This is... possible... only because Akihito is here."

I started to slowly step away from them.

"However, it looks like even superstition has its limits," Feilong silkily commented as he sipped from a _gaiwan_. I _knew_ that he'd drink from a _gaiwan_ in casual settings, ha! "One of the men was a mole who stole the deed to the Macau casino. He didn't dare to approach Tao because of Akihito, so he found another way."

"Me?!" I echoed in disbelief as Old Liu's apparition nodded.

"It's true," Old Liu nodded. " _Bakeneko_ are famous man-eaters. The cat of King Songdi..." he shuddered.

"He just called me a man-eater and compared me to one of the judgements of East Asian Hell," I relayed to the Triad Boss. I leant closer. "Wanna know the details?"

"I'll take your word for it, Takaba," Feilong replied. "It seems like they have forced my hand. Asami must really want you back."

He cast an eye over me, and more specifically the clothes that Tao had forced on me one day just so that the clothes I'd worn in Japan could be washed. The thing is, all of Tao's choices seemed to be heavily... what's the word?

 _Chinese_.

As in, short sleeves, frog buttons, mandarin collars, hip slits, silk, and embroidered flowers – complete with body-hugging tightness. It was enough to make me wish for a cat's loose skin again. My self-consciousness drove me towards Feilong's decanter – anything to keep my claws busy and a weapon at hand.

"Even Chinese clothing looks good on you," Feilong praised. "Do you just want to become my parlour maid?"

"Nope." I clicked my tongue. "You do know that your dad is here, right?"

But Old Liu had gone.

...traitor!

"He seems to have gone to check on Tao," Feilong checked the surface of the decanter I was holding once I turned back to him. Too late, I realised that the clear surface and lack of frost did indicate a deficiency of ghostly presence.

"And you're not going to transform into a cat," Feilong added with wicked glee, "because of the one who's locked in my cellar."

Well... I contemplated the windows, but it was an empty move. I couldn't leave a fellow demon behind – that was not the done thing. Godmother would really skin me.

"Mikhail said, and I quote, that you 'must have been an angel in the choirs'," Feilong added. "What did you sing?"

"T- The Beauty Song."

Feilong gave a bark of laughter as he walked towards a wall cabinet. "I'd have loved to see that."

A jacket with water-sleeves was flung at me. Feilong stood up, pushing the entire table and its innocuous Monopoly board away from me. He then pulled a chair from the table, settling into the hard-backed wood as easily as he would a throne. "And some accompaniment wouldn't be amiss."

The door opened a second later, and Kō-san inclined her head from the frame of the door. That was before she was pushed in by a fat, balding old Chinese man, who bowed and scraped to Feilong in another language before he was dismissed.

"Madam, I'd like to see if Takaba's singing is as good as Mikhail says," Feilong smirked. "Could you please play the accompaniment?"

Since she was holding the lute that used to be O-Kijin, it was little matter to grab a chair and decisively sit down. She gave me a hard look, and nodded before she decisively strummed.

I donned the jacket over my shirt, pulling it tightly shut. I'd just barely managed it before Kō-san gave the warning strums. Then I stood, and fell back on Godmother's very strict teaching.

Since Godmother had imparted magic through dance moves, I was frantically reviewing my moves with the song. My mind went something like:

First beat: throw my arms out back.

Second beat: graceful forward sweep with left sleeve.

Third: sweep back.

Fourth: kick back.

First chorus.

Bridge.

Second chorus.

So distracted I was, that it wasn't until the last beat had ended, and I'd spun into a ball seated at Feilong's feet and glancing up that I knew if anything had worked. Then I knew that maybe I'd done something wrong when Feilong started tearing the clothes off of me right there and then.

* * *

The second day after the Flying Dragon had sunk, I told Godmother about the magic dances. Godmother was staring at me when I'd finished confessing. Her left hand rose to her forehead, and then her palm rested across her face. "That was dangerous magic, Aki. You could've gotten killed."

"W- What did I do?" Now I was seriously terrified.

"That... that was my original dance ritual based on pacing the Big Dipper,3" Godmother admitted unhappily. "Basically, I was trying to copy Dakki's more-than-mind control technique."

"Dakki... you mean, Kō-san's big sister?"

"Yes..." Godmother's glare lost its heat as she continued smoking. "Dakki's enchantment was more than mind control, which is why it was so interesting. Anyway, over the course of history I managed to gain four more case studies and developed four individual magic skills from them. _Chingyo, Rakugan, Eigetsu,_ and _Sh_ _ū_ _ka_.4"

"So which one did I use?!" I exclaimed in fear. I might not know my history well, but I was fairly sure that most of these poor women died horribly.

"Then I combined them all into what is possibly the strongest enchantment magic currently in this world, _Keiseikeikoku._ 5"

"What were you planning with such a powerful mind-control ritual, Godmother?!" I demanded at last. "It's suspicious and scary!"

"Well, we were testing the theory of whether it was possible for beauty to ruin a realm, or if strong ruler-ship and political structures could prevent that," Godmother replied. "I found the tune catchy. I've always danced it with a deliberate misstep. I couldn't know that you'd learn the whole thing voluntarily _or_ retain knowledge of it. It's not like you've remembered most things I'd taught you. Unlike the _bugang_ , which was useful in helping avoid most of the damage from being shot, it seems."

"Oh, right," I nodded. "Feilong shot me... I don't know where, but I was fine within three days. Is that one of the effects?"

"Of pacing the Big Dipper, yes. But _Keiseikeikoku_ is a different ritual magic." Godmother eyed me. "I didn't think you'd be dumb enough to actually dance it without knowing its effects. How long did it take you to master?"

Or be dumb enough to use it without knowing its effects. I sank back against Asami's couch. "Feilong, he..."

"What happened?" Asami spoke quietly to me.

"That song, and that dance, and once I finished, he tried to rip my clothes off." I imparted, trying not to shudder. "I slapped him, and it... well, he awoke. He apologised, and... then sent me to find Tao. I didn't see him again until the _Flying Dragon_."

Feilong had been... vigorous, but his strength was human. I'd broken his face before he'd stopped.

Godmother looked at me with supernatural calm; the opposite of how I felt. "How was it?" She asked. "If you're used to it, there are way more combat arts that you can access."

…

I shook my head.

"Then don't dabble in arts you don't understand. You couldn't have unleashed the full power of _Keiseikeikoku_ , anyway," Godmother concluded, resolving a lot of unneeded angst. "If you had, one of you would have already been dead."

I swallowed, shuddering. "Huh? Why? How?"

Godmother uncrossed and recrossed her legs. "You'll either be dead from too much sex, or he'll be dead from getting you away from all competitors or too much sex, and between you two – three, sorry – would have been the smoking remains of the _Flying Dragon_. I wouldn't have needed to save you, because you'd be _dead_."

I shuddered. Godmother's placid recount of my potential demise by sex just sounded... _wrong_.

"By the way, Aki, you're never allowed to dance it again," Godmother added. "Being called a castle-destroying beauty isn't exactly a complimentary term, even if most of that beauty was simply magic."

My placid and chilling Godmother gained a sinister aura to me then. Godmother, who'd unknowingly taught me magic. Godmother, who'd taught me to be human, who'd given me the tools to be human. Godmother, who clearly hadn't cared too much if I'd lived or died from being dumb enough to use her rituals.

The thing is, Godmother would already be considered a dedicated parent, compared to the large majority of flighty assholes that made up the other world who left their children to fend for themselves once they turned thirteen. This was a cold, cruel world that we belonged to. And I'd stated repeatedly, at length my lack of interest in learning anyway.

"Yes, Godmother."

"Have you made your decision?"

No, I haven't.

Even as I moved back into the normal life in human society, even when I found my new apartment...

"What d'you mean, _they've all been moved?!_ "

* * *

A cat punch is a weak punch, but my cat punch sent the boss of Baishe ass over tea-kettle into his chair. Wood splintered as he crashed into it.

Kō-san hummed. "Why did you hit him? If he fell to my hypnosis, we could've been freed much earlier."

Hypnosis.

She'd been doing this to get to Feilong all along. It was a flawed plan, but excellent. _Youkai_ had a long and storied history with the human underworlds. Godmother had told me that controlling the kingpins of the _ronin_ was a game played by some nasty old _youkai_ back in the Edo era.

I'd realised then, but I hated to believe it. Flames erupted where she had been, and the old woman with the _pipa_ fled immediately. I felt her aura move past and away from the Liu house, away from Feilong.

Feilong groaned, moving to sit back up. "Surely Asami didn't pick up a stray cat like you because you fought back like that."

"You're right." I pulled my clothings straight, and then stood back up on my feet. "He didn't. I got drunk on _matatabi_ after an allergic reaction to lilies and alcohol, and came onto him. I don't know or care what beef you have with Asami that dragged me into this. But, I'm a _bakeneko_. I'm not just going to let you rape me without a fight."

Then I knelt until I was level with his face. A pewter boot fell from my clothes to the floor – he'd thrown me into the Monopoly table first.

"You don't need any help becoming a demon, because you're _already halfway there_ ," I hissed to Feilong's ashen face. "Obsessing even when you can't get your hands on the things you want, the man you want, until you harass other people as a substitute... that is the mark of _youkai_ , not of humans! It will only hurt you in the end!"

"Akihito... why are you crying?"

"I wish you were my friend, because then I'd be justified in hitting you," I snapped back. "You have people who love and respect you as you are! You have an identity, a face that is yours, connections within this world. Why do you want to become a _youkai_ who could never form roots, never stay in one place for more than three years, and always have to watch how you eat, drink and act in company?! What's the point in cutting yourself off from all of those to become a monster?"

It was definitely sunset. My eyes had changed, and with them my sight. Feilong's breath tickled my nose, but I could not see his face, that vehicle of human emotions.

"I can't even see in great detail like this," I told Feilong. "Not my friends or family, nor the subjects of my photographs or the people I love. I'd do anything to see them at night with human eyes, you know? So that I'd know it's not a dream."

"...I'm sorry, Akihito." Feilong sighed. "Could you... please find Tao? I am worried that our scuffle might have woken him."

It was a lie, of course. But I let him lie, and wrap the scales of a dragon's dignity around himself.

Later on, Old Liu floated into my room and gave his deepest bow from his wheelchair. "Thank you for giving him a way to break free."

"I?"

"Yes," Old Liu hummed in agreement. "You're... Asami's cat? That Asami is a... _Daoshi_?"

"Hell no." I couldn't imagine Asami that bastard as a Taoist practitioner. That would require submitting to something, and I couldn't imagine Asami doing _that_. "He's... well..."

How do I describe our relationship?

"...it's complicated," I decided at last.

" _Duanxiu_?6"

"I don't understand Chinese."

"Ah, never mind." Old Liu sighed, turning more melancholic now. "Cats in Japan aren't supposed to come into contact with the dead because they would take control of the corpse, right? That's why Feilong was able to hear me. If you leave... will I still be able to get to him?"

"...I don't know." I swallowed. "But that's for the best, right, mister? For Feilong to move forward."

"Yeah... you're right, boy."

* * *

 _ **Critiquez, s'il vous plaît!**_

 _ **1 Also called 'nekoguruma' = cat cart.**_

 _ **2 猫に小判: the Japanese equivalent of 'casting pearls before swine'.**_

 _ **3 Bugang is a Taoist ritual dance or walk, based upon the limping Yubu tradition, in which a Taoist priest paces through a supernatural pattern. Texts from the 4th century contain the earliest descriptions of bugang, frequently with the practitioner pacing among constellations, especially the Big Dipper's stars. When religious Taoism began during the Six Dynasties period (220-589 CE), the expression 步罡踏斗 "pacing the guideline and treading on (the stars of) the Dipper" became popular.**_

 _ **4 This comes from the phrase: '沈魚落雁閉月羞花', which refers to the charms of a woman so beautiful that 'fish stay on the bottom of water', 'geese fall out of the sky', 'the moon hides itself', and 'shames flowers'.**_

 _ **5 This comes from 倾城倾国 – downfall of cities and countries.**_

 _ **6 Traditional terms for homosexuality included "the passion of the cut sleeve" and "the divided peach".**_


	12. 十一: Karacha

_**Silvervine**_

 _ **A/N: You don't need to have read Ghost Fire beforehand to understand this chapter. You just need to know that yes, this is a series where the stories more or less take place in the same world. Which only works because, well, story logic. And lots of authorial license.**_

 _ **It will, however, help if you've read it. Not because it'll improve your understanding, but because then I know that people are paying attention to the rest of the series and that Ghost Fire isn't a waste of time.**_

– _**LLS**_

* * *

 **十一** **: Karacha**

Feilong extended my freedoms the next day. Of course, to a _youkai_ like me, that was an engraved invitation to run. And run I did. Maybe it was my homing instinct, but I found myself headed, on instinct, towards the north, towards the side of the island of Hong Kong that faced Kowloon, towards the jetty, on the jetty and the numerous tiny boats it serviced-

I slipped, tripped, and went overboard.

This, children, is why you don't run on a jetty or where you're liable to fall back into the ocean.

I just got hit by Godmother. Apparently I'm not allowed to teach small children until I grew up mentally, which _I resent that implication, Godmother_!

I kept coughing water as I dragged myself out. "This is terrible luck. I only fall from great heights when Asami's around."

I fell silent as I realised something.

"Oh. I missed his birthday."

I'd also missed the start of Obon, so I had no idea what I was thinking. I changed back to animal form and started grooming hurriedly, the better to not feel disgusting. After all, I _am_ a cat.

I wandered around the northern wharf, and then I found Tao, school having ended for him early. School on Saturday, huh... no wonder he'd rather stay on a public bench and watch the sea.

"Fei-sama said that he's going to trade you back, Akihito!" Tao complained, kicked the ground as I leapt onto his lap. "Are you sure you don't want to stay?"

"I'm not a cat all the time, Tao!" I felt bad for snapping at him, but Tao really needed to know that I wasn't his pet. "Anyway, I have a job and friends back in Japan. And the summer celebrations!"

"But we have _getai_ celebrations!" Tao argued.

"What's that?"

Apparently, a popular Seventh Month custom from Southeast Asia – more specifically, the Asian Tiger economy of Singapore – was to set up a large stage outdoors and vacate the first row exclusively for ghosts and spirits. Some enterprising guy had brought the custom over to Hong Kong, which seemed to contrast with the solemn mood of the month and yet totally fit the celebration of lives well ended.

On the other hand, this was Feilong's place we were talking about. I wouldn't understand anything at those concerts. Tao, though, was kind enough to point out some sites and chat at great length about the festivals he'd seen. He was a kid, and his words disjointed, and his experiences still limited so it felt kinda weird when I realised that this was possibly the first friend he'd made that wasn't intimidated by his Triad father.

"It sounds like a Nura-gumi party," I commented when Tao had finished explaining about the raucous Chinese New Year party held during Feilong's return to Baishe.

"Nura-gumi?" Tao blinked. "But you're a civilian, right, Aki? How d'you know a Yakuza clan?"

"The Nura-gumi is a _youkai_ clan," I replied. "You can't even call them a normal Yakuza clan, since they were formed in the Sengoku era. Their boss is the leader of the Hyakki Yagyō!"

"A demon... Yakuza clan?" Tao exclaimed in disbelief. "That sounds... so cool, but also terrifying..."

"Isn't it?!" I agreed. "They really pull out the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons in summer! Every demon in Tokyo takes to the skies, or march on the ground, or swim in the lakes and seas, and we run rampant around the human capital at night! Amongst my friends, only Takato can fly, so Kou and I usually borrow an _oboroguruma_."

"That's the cart _youkai_ with a human face at the front, right?" Tao asked in concern. "Uhm... they're _tsukumogami_ , right? So, how did they get formed?"

"Apparently, oboroguruma are born from the negative feelings of ancient Heian-era nobles who got their parking spots taken from them." I recalled. "Actually, all vehicular _youkai_ are born from some negative feeling associated with vehicles. Car accidents, parking fights, accidental bumps... humans are very constant about that kind of accident."

"It feels both amazing and pedestrian," Tao giggled. "Say, Akihito, will you still visit?"

"I'll... I'll leave my email!" I promised the kid. "After all, if you need me, I'll fly over right away!"

"In an _oboroguruma_?! I'll be able to see it?!" Tao squeaked. "Really?!"

"Uhm, that depends on whether I can go back to Japan, you know..."

* * *

The situation between Asami and Feilong finally boiled over until Old Liu talked Feilong into agreeing to the exchange. That was how I came to be aboard the casino ship _Flying Dragon_ while it was moored in its home port, and while the casino was closed I'd performed – with a deliberate flourish that luckily disrupted the steps of the ritual dance, which was how Asami had gotten the video.

The weather had been projected to be mild – which was why nobody was expecting my Godmother's rescue to come that night when the cruise ship was made private and the passengers had been moved ashore to their hotels and whatnot.

To be fair, I hadn't expected it, either. She hadn't given me notice.

"Asami will board this casino cruise ship we're on via a small ship," Feilong explained to be in his private lounge aboard. "Akihito, at the same time you board Asami's ship, we will exchange the deed. There will be no bullets fired as long as Asami doesn't do anything funny."

He paused as a chill descended. "Neither... do I have any intention of doing anything that won't benefit Baishe further. Asami is a cautious man; he would not try anything further after he has gone to such lengths to get you."

I fidgeted in my seat. Tao had selected another outfit, this one of light blue silk with frogging and a pattern of primroses. "Shut up, mister!" I hissed towards Old Liu, who was still laughing.

Feilong stifled a snicker, or a manly giggle. "Why so tense? I thought you were a happy-go-lucky type who didn't even care about danger."

"I do care about danger!" I replied with a moue. "And I'm not tense!"

"Yes, well, I have no intention of harming you anymore," Feilong concluded impatiently. "That's why I agreed to this exchange."

Right... yeah I thought so too, even if I can't trust you. I can't even trust Old Liu, and he's _already_ dead!

"Very soon we'll cross the border. Once we enter the Macau region, the casino will open, but... shall I let you play, Akihito?"

"You gonna loan me some cash?" I shook my head. "I don't even play at _Bakenekoya_."

"What's that?"

I crossed my arms. "A _youkai_ gambling establishment."

"Can't be legal."

"Can't be very updated either, since most of the people they cater to lived in the Edo era," I quipped.

"Sentiment," Feilong scoffed. A beat of silence echoed before he took up the tract again.

"You don't know how bad it is. You won't know when it's happening, but it will happen, you know. He'll start to crowd you until you can't think. You will be frustrated, but you won't be able to say why. Then you will resent him," he continues. "You'll resent him because he does not understand you – he _cannot_ understand you – and you won't be able to function like you used to. You'll push him away, and then he'll push back, and you'll lose him."

Responding at this juncture meant that I gave credence to Feilong's words. Well, no one ever said that I had common sense. "True. My luck always turns bad when he's around. It's almost enough to make me wish to go back to Yokohama. Even if he's a stupid ass who brings bouquets of drugs and ties people up and thinks a popular suicide spot is a good place for body disposal without incurring the wrath of the locals."

"You would've preferred it if I stayed, wouldn't you?" I accused Feilong. "So that we could be lonely and ludicrous and strange together instead of alone."

Feilong didn't say anything, instead choosing to take a sip of some brandy in a glass next to him. "I always felt alienated by the antics of my family, and even before that of humans in general. But there should be others like me. Born between worlds, and unable to access either. But you? You chose to be human, despite being able to live in that other world of darkness. All because you wanted to _photograph_. You must be a laughingstock."

I curled in myself in my perch. "Shut up."

"We are the same kind, in either world," Feilong added. "I can guarantee your feline independence. Haven't I done so over the past few days? My father would go through the rest of his sentence assured until his reincarnation. Tao would love to have you stay. And we can, as you put it, be lonely and ludicrous and strange together, instead of alone."

"I..." I shook my head. "I have to get back."

"Even if you spent your hours of freedom simply hanging around the northern wharf?"

I didn't reply. I had no idea what I was feeling, but no longer was I experiencing that urge to swim across the ocean to Japan. I was simply... at peace. As if the centre of my universe had moved to accompany me. "...yes."

Feilong nodded. "I've never felt the need to ask this question, but... how is it like to live as a human in human society, even though you started as a cat?"

"Humans... have too many rules," I confided to Feilong, discarding my doubts.

That was ridiculous, even my world. The mountain might move for Muhammad, but it certainly wouldn't move for me.

...Japan hasn't moved, has it?

* * *

Hong Kong as an island was right next door to Macau. Therefore, the first hint that something was wrong came when one guy came to Feilong's quarters and babbled something in Chinese that made Feilong frown.

"What do you mean, we're off-course?!"

The man babbled some more.

"Fog is not an excuse for why we're two thousand kilometres in the _opposite_ direction from Macau!" The temperature was rapidly dropping around Feilong. "What the hell is that useless captain doing?!"

The man spoke some more, and then made way for another person with the skipper's hat – clearly, the captain. Feilong barked out some words that I didn't understand; clearly, it was a demand for information.

"I'm sorry, but Jogae-nuna asked me to waylay your ship."

Feilong's expression changed. "Jogae-nuna?"

The captain blew a cloud of billowing smoke. The smoke pervaded everything, including the men beside and before him. A flowery smell preceded the Triad boss' collapse.

Magic. He'd used an illusion simply to put everyone to sleep, just like that.

Ah, I'm so jealous...!~

Even if amongst _youkai,_ there's nobody who's strong, a magic user, intelligent _and_ omnipotent, even if each _youkai_ had a role, a skill and a weakness, having magic must be so _cool_. I'm strong and fast, but I suck at magic... I'm so jealous of his skill at wielding magic with such ease, especially fox-fire.

The captain took off his cap to reveal blond hair, blue eyes and very clearly Asian features.

"Takaba Akihito- _ssi_?" He was speaking accented Japanese, like some of my _zainichi_ acquaintances.

I backed up.

"You're Jogae-nuna's godson, right? I'm-"

"You're Godmother's Korean friend!" I shouted, pointing at him. "Why are you here?!"

"Oi, is that any way to thank your rescuer?" He put one hand on his hip. "Jogae-nuna was seriously worried about you, you know. And then we got news about the Nine-Headed Pheasant selling you out to the Russians and the Baishe triad, so the schedule got moved up. Nuna's power of getting ships lost is awesome, right?"

"She got other _youkai_ involved?!" I exclaimed. _Youkai_ were creatures that usually stuck to their own business. If she'd needed help...

"But Godmother messed with the GPS?" I frowned as Ewon beckoned to me, and I followed behind him. "Where are we?"

"We're in the Devil's Sea, where Jogae-nuna's assembled the Takarabune fleet," Ewon replied, keeping up with my top speed with comfortable ease. For your information, I can dash at speeds of 48 kph – the same as a house cat, but enviable for humans.

"The Treasure Ship fleet?! The Devil's Sea?!"

"Also known as the Formosa Triangle, the Dragon's Triangle-"

"I know that!" I snapped back. "But why did she have to use her skill to strand these guys so far from Hong Kong?! And why did she need the famous _Sky Fortress_ , the Takarabune?!"

"Isn't that obvious?" Ewon asked me. "To sink this whole boat."

"There's such a thing called _overkill_ , you know!" We'd made it out to the open deck when the bullets started flying.

"Never heard of that!"

I think at some point all _youkai_ are crazy to each other, but Ewon looked even crazier as he laughed in the middle of cooking off a gun in a guy's hand. The gun fucking exploded in a hail of bullets and melted parts, which is definitely drawing more attention than simply fighting with claws.

Even though, and I thought this with vicious relish as Ewon got punched by another Chinese guy, I was definitely hardier than this guy. Well, foxes do come in all sizes and shapes, including those with great magical power who had to manifest by possessing human bodies. No, that can't be right, he just clawed a guy's eye out.

"Say, this is an awkward question, but are there Russians involved in this equation?"

I thought back to the fiery bird. "Yes."

"OK..." Ewon winced as he moved his nose back into position before walking towards a lifeboat, pulling at the rigging. I moved to help him once the armed guards on the deck had been handled in some manner, and we stepped into the row-boat.

At least, Ewon did.

I was more distracted by the fact that I was going to throw Feilong and his men into the Devil's Sea without a care. Sure, Feilong was culpable, but I knew what dwelt within the seas that the _ayakashi_ held domain over.1

"The people here..." I hated my conscience.

"What, Takaba- _ya_?" Ewon was already prepared to loosen the pulley that would drop us overboard into the Pacific Ocean.

"We can't leave these people stranded to be eaten by _ayakashi_!" I pleaded. "Feilong- he still has a son waiting for him in Hong Kong!" Tao would never forgive me if I let his dad get eaten.

"Ah..." Ewon hesitated. "But guns. And Russians."

The cruise ship rocked, and we tumbled. I scrabbled for purchase on the chased steel boards, barely holding on. Ewon floated, apparently having given up on stable footing in favour of flight. Which is _so_ unfair.

"That's definitely _ayakashi_!" I shuddered. The accumulation of souls that died at sea was not to be taken lightly.

Portholes opened and closed, doors swung open or slammed shut. Humans scrambled for purchase on a part of the world hovering at the bounds of liminality, just at that stage where the real world was bleeding away from the world of _youkai_. Yelling punctuated with Russian, Chinese and English echoed from them, not that I heard anything with the ship rolling on the surface of the Pacific.

"Uh, the big Russian guy isn't here with permission?" Ewon frowned as Mikhail's quarrel with Feilong started. "Or something like that?"

The ship trembled again, from a large object ramming into its side and sending it reeling. A large spray kicked up, lost against the heavy fog that hung around it. Godmother had really planned it all out; being at her strongest in the sea, she'd taken advantage of Feilong's choice of location to make Ewon lead us astray with help from her power of getting lost. This close to the sea of _ayakashi_ , the two of us then just needed to escape and leave the humans to their fate of certain doom.

I dragged myself across the deck floor, heading for the door to the inside of the ship. "Don't care- ow!"

The door had opened, nearly slamming my hand into its sunken steel frame. Feilong stood there, a gun in hand and his other hand steadying himself against the ship's surface. "Akihito?!"

"We're in a trap!" I explained quickly, and then pointed to Ewon.

"Ewon! You can help us escape the barrier, right?" I wanted to plead, but the thing about _gitsune_ was that they had to set the price. Otherwise, if I'd accidentally offended a _gitsune_ , it wouldn't matter how friendly my godmother was with them – I'd still be dead.

"Isn't the point to escape here?!" Ewon shot back.

"Tao wouldn't forgive me if he knew I let Feilong die here," I shook my head.

"He's your kidnapper, Takaba- _ya_ ," Ewon persuaded. "He got it coming when he got you dragged into this. We gotta get to the lifeboat!"

"I'm not doing this for him! His son was kind to me. That's a debt!" I retorted.

"If it's just him... the boat can take him."

"I won't leave without my men!" Feilong immediately stopped that idea, even as the ship was rammed. "Misleading the navigation suites, leading us so far off course... what kind of demonic forces are at work? Do you know who's doing all this?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "My godmother is the oldest _shinkirō_ currently alive."

"A mirage?" Feilong blinked slowly. As I stared at him, it was like... like... and my eyes were melting back into the shadows of a cat.

"Your eyes..." Feilong's whisper seemed so much more heightened and strong with tension. "They're slitted, like a cat."

"We're fully in the otherworld," I confessed. "My godmother... her motive is to kill you, Feilong. First for kidnapping me, and second for revenge. To do that, she is prepared to kill all your men here with you."

Feilong hummed. His gun clicked. "Mikhail Arbatov is aboard as well, despite my precautions. Where are we?"

"The Devil's Sea."

"Just a hundred kilometres from Tokyo, then," Feilong nodded, even as we braced ourselves against another ramming. Salt spray tore parts of the heavy fog into holey rips, but still the heavy pressure of the fog continued to shroud the ship. "I... do I really have the blood of the white snake in me?"

I nodded. "Godmother won't lie about that."

"Then... at least I have returned to the world of my origins."

Wheels squeaked.

"Feilong," Old Liu's gravelly voice rang like a dirge across the ocean, granted power by the liminal nature of this part of the world shrouded in the mists spewed by my godmother. "You might be descended from the Madam White Snake, but you are also human. Right now, our priority should be to get this ship away from Madame Kyō."

"I agree- wait, you know her, mister?!" I did a double-take.

"Of course," he said. "Madame Kyō is famous in the Enma Palace. The chief demon even gave her the Longest-Serving Staff Award a few years ago."

"So you already knew my identity?!"

"No, I didn't know at all until you mentioned that she's the oldest _shinkirō_ alive." Old Liu's sigh caused the wound of his death to bleed some more, even if he technically didn't have a body to bleed with. "What do you propose?"

"I'll go find the next in command on the crew," Feilong decided, turning on one heel to move off. "Father, please run communications between us. Akihito, can you and your friend prevent more collisions from happening?"

"I'm not fighting!" Ewon snapped as Feilong left. "Are you listening, Takaba- _ya_?! I'm just a _samiho_! I'm a fire-using _youkai_ , just like you! All the _ayakashi_ in the sea are water-based _youkai_!"

"I'm not getting off this ship until every human aboard is secured!" I snapped back. "They aren't involved. Godmother has gone too far this time, dragging a whole ship into this. You're Godmother's friend, I know, but I'm begging you, please help me! So is life so cheap that you wouldn't help them?! They know I'm a monster but they were kind to me!"

"It's _because_ they know you're a monster that they must die!" Ewon retorted. "How long will it be, before those humans pick you as a way into the world of monsters? And if they survive, how many will hunt you to the ends of the earth, even if you saved them?"

"It doesn't matter!" My retracted claws shot out, and I prepared to slash as another salt spray heralded the ascent and descent of more _youkai_. "I'll feel bad for the rest of my life if I can't save them!"

Looking back on hindsight, it was stupid. I'd still make that same choice anyway, because, well...

Godmother had asked me too, when I had torn myself from the Dragon King's palace and back to the surface world at Kowloon Bay.

I simply had no excuse, you see. All the plans had been assembled, all the pieces allotted. Feilong brought this upon himself. Mikhail was more or less the same. I would never have seen Tao again. I would've happily returned to Japan, and all that would have cost was a ship full of lives. They weren't even very good lives, but...

It might seem like a weird belief to hold as a _youkai_ , but... I just felt that there is nothing wrong in saving people's lives.

Humans always went on about the importance of lives, but when push came to shove they all thought about their _own_ lives. Part of me also didn't want to be as hypocritical as them. I was confronting this most difficult situation, because it was the right thing to do – and because of this reason, I went ahead with redoubled courage.

Even if it was idiotic.

* * *

The thing that was ramming the ship was Isonade. As it made its rush, I leapt for it, scoring its scaly hide with my claws. Aboard Isonade, a team of Kappa with their Suiko boss threw water in the shape of balls at me, slamming me back into the deck.

"Nuna is really going to kill me if you die like this!" Ewon complained.

"You... fight... too..." I coughed, sopping wet and tasting salt in my mouth.

"I don't have that kind of obligation," Ewon flippantly replied. "Besides, I don't have enough power to defy Nuna's great spell array. We just need to get these people back to Hong Kong, right?"

I wiped my mouth, but my motion turned into an improvised blow against a passing _ningyō_ armed with a fishing harpoon. The entire cruise ship was changing direction, though the motion seemed irrelevant in the context of not being able to see even a metre before me aboard the _Flying Dragon_.

"No signal?! Are you serious?" Ewon's complaints continued. "Fine. Making a fox like me move all of you back... I'm going to find ritual materials on the ship now. Don't die, Takaba- _ya_."

"Same to you, Ewon- _ya_."

He succeeded. Obviously he succeeded, because I'd given Isonade-san and Umibozu-san too many cuts to be apologised with only using gifts.

Godmother later dragged me before them to give an explanation and beg for forgiveness, but I felt that, in a weird sense, she was approving of me living my life without regrets.

Before that, though, I wasn't prepared for the lengths that Godmother would go.

I knew, of course, that while she was invested in integrating _youkai_ into human society, the reverse would never happen. A human would find it difficult, if not outright impossible, to fit into our world. The few that managed the transformation to _youkai_ were also considered monsters amongst humans. This was a world where human life was regarded as at best fleeting, and at worst even lesser than dirt. This was a world where malice aforethought and spontaneous warred with each other, where psychopaths could win power and reason fleeting at best. It was a world where a reason to kill didn't need to exist beyond 'I was bored'.

Godmother explained it all to me later, in cold, chilling tones that left me in both admiration and fear. I hadn't realised that when Feilong chose to meet Asami aboard the _Flying Dragon_ , that her pawns were already in place. Ewon would pull the cruise ship into her mist trap and strand it within, leaving the two of us to escape and the rest as food for the _ayakashi_ of the Devil's Sea.

Meanwhile, Godmother would make her move.

* * *

 _ **Critiquez, s'il vous plaît!**_

 **1 _Ayakashi_ is the collective name for _Yōkai_ that appear above the surface of some body of water.**


	13. 十二: Shion

_**Silvervine**_

 _ **An LLS Production**_

* * *

 **十二** **：** **Shion**

Kou and Takato weren't the assassins she sent, of course not.

What she employed were two _sazae-oni_ , female demons of the turban shell who specialised in testicular removal. It would've been funny, except that I knew exactly how vicious these two were. Godmother never kept them near her place, and I had realised why the first time I saw them kill in the hunt. Their service to Godmother far outweighed how much they valued their lives.

I saw their conical shell-hats floating in the waters behind a black helicopter that was a silhouette in the sky. Police were already scouring where able, except that they disregarded the parts of the sea shrouded in mists. That was why it was so surprising when a helicopter landed on the deck closest to the back of the ship – the head, now that I'd had the time to look up ship parts.

"Are we back yet?" Feilong had reappeared on the surface, his expression calm. This was probably in contrast to the blond Russian behind him, who kept babbling.

I pointed a shaking figure to the helicopter and the skyline of Hong Kong's coastal view behind it. "No helicopter _youkai_ yet."

Feilong looked at me. "...you're joking."

"An object has to be around for at least a hundred years to become a _tsukumogami_ ," I replied. "Ever met a helicopter that old?"

"...no." Feilong relaxed.

Behind him, Mikhail babbled some more.

"Your godmother sent sea monsters to rescue you," Feilong continued, ignoring the Russian. "Are we expecting Godzilla soon?"

It took me a while to figure out because of the pronunciation problem, but I shook my head. "Not Godzilla, he's not a-"

I hit the deck as the cruise ship shook again. Wet fur hit my face, and I snarled before I realised that the wet fur was one of three tails attached to a russet-coloured fox. Ewon. It was Ewon – magically manipulating Godmother's mist technique must have spent all of his magic. I felt so bad for him, I would've moved him inside the ship if we weren't under attack right now.

"Oh God!"

Feilong's ejaculation of fierce English called my attention to the skies.

…

..

.

The flagship is a single-masted floating wooden ship. It had rammed the Flying Dragon; that was the cause of the rumble. A pair of eyes floated before its white sail, which bore the crest of a large diamond over four smaller diamonds in the cardinal directions, and in the middle there was the symbol of Fear.

 **畏**

...I knew my godmother was a heavyweight in the East Asian otherworld. I hadn't realised what that actually meant until _now_.

The second rumble was when one of its escort houseboats made contact with the _Flying Dragon_ , and exploded. Gunfire resounded, clear across the waters of Kowloon Bay. Two women pulled over the gunwales of the _Flying Dragon_ , rolling to avoid damage to their extremities. Their conical turban-shell hats clacked as it made contact with the steel deck, just like the screeching of a landing helicopter.

One of them reached for Ewon, the other for me.

"Is this him, Kaiyō?"

"Yes, Nanami."

"Akihito!" Feilong's shout was punctuated by a staccato burst of gunfire. The second _sazae-oni_ , Kaiyō, cursed and ducked away from me.

"Human-!" They answered with grappling and knives.

It would've been dumb for normal people to use knives in a gunfight, but they weren't normal people. None of us were normal people, but there was a rule of thumb that the older a _youkai_ was, the more license they got to pull off truly ridiculous feats of strength. I'd seen Godmother melt bullets in mid-air when she was truly angry.

So, one of them, Nanami, took Ewon and leapt over the deck with a _splash_.

The other, Kaiyō, started to engage Feilong in fisticuffs. Feilong knocked her ankle out from underneath her with one leg, and got in a good stomp on her stomach. She drove her knuckles against the side of his knee, forcing Feilong to back off or get knocked to the ground.

After that, both of them were throwing a lot of vicious and swift punches aimed with enviable precision, but to me they were all a blur – damn cat eyesight. I leapt, and kept leaping. More shadows arose, each of them moving with the mechanical precision of a clock or something as they attacked more _youkai_. I was told later, that they'd been the corpses of fallen Baishe, reanimated for...

I had no idea how, but the signature magic of the _nekomata_...

It wasn't until Feilong disengaged and used his gun that he got caught off-guard – the bullets pinged off of her skin as she dived close and made a spinning kick straight out of Hong Kong action movies. Feilong ducked it, which was a close thing; part of the steel-plated deck bent with a loud groan under the force of the strike from a _sazae-oni._

That type of _youkai_ didn't even specialise in brute strength!

"Well," Feilong commented, as if a bulletproof fighter wasn't the most interesting thing he'd seen all day. Maybe it wasn't.

"What are you waiting for, Akihito-sama?!" the _sazae-oni_ called, her voice almost drowned in a sea breeze that kicked up a spray of salty water. "Get overboard-!"

Another burst of gunfire, and a _ping_.

" _How dare you, stupid human! Two against one-!_ "

A muffled gasp of pain, and-

"It seems," Feilong spoke, "that the wounds I gave you haven't healed yet, Asami."

"Asami?!" I looked around, futile though the gesture seemed. A burst of gunfire hit my ears at the same time something clipped against my left shoulder, and I fell forward with a cry of pain.

"Stop that, Arbatov!" A familiar voice cleaved through the darkness. "He's on our side!"

"Asami...?!" I shouted. "Asami, where are you? Everything's moving. I can't see, Asami- argh!"

A burst of flame had cut across my eyes. That flame... was Yuri. What was his problem, I didn't know, but it was having my fur burnt by the fire of a Russian fire-bird that I tumbled over the gunwales and hit the waters of Kowloon Bay feet-first.

The thing is, being shot, stabbed and then thrown into the freezing waters of the Kowloon Bay didn't merit too much for my health. I'd barely remained conscious to kick out and break the surface with my head, gasping for sweet air. I'd barely gotten a mouthful of air before I felt the waters themselves move.

I heard thunder clap. Lightning blinded me. The winds shifted. More shouting was punctuated by the heavens opening up with a terrible torrential shower of a-

Forces tugged at my leg, and I screamed before the waters of the Kowloon Bay stole the bubbles from my lip and my head went under.

I... I don't remember what I screamed, of course! I was fucking drowning at that time!

Over the screeching of rent metal and shattering glass, there was another shout, hoarse and desperate.

"AKIHITO!"

Someone... someone came for me?

Who?

The maelstrom dragged at my legs, and I was hit by debris. Even if I hadn't fought against the flow of the clashing currents, I would still have seen the cause of the maelstrom so intense as to tear apart a ship, and so localised as to pass unremarked this close to human cities. All of those waters, the waters of the Kowloon Bay, were flowing, all of them paths to the fantastic city at the bottom of the ocean.

This was a sight that only the drowned would see.

My godmother would rather drown me than leave me to be rescued by mere humans. _This_ was the lengths that she was prepared to go to.

My left shoulder screamed in protest- someone had been a good enough shot to plug me in the shoulder. My head burst through the surface again – metal, and electricity, and fire. The ship was burning, then. And opposite the ship-

Land. I had to get to land. What I was seeking... it was on land. Or, it would be.

The process kinda got blurry since I had no frame of reference of time, and I was bleeding out in the ocean. This is the kind of thing that encourages shark attacks. I was cold, frightened, and hungry when I'd collided with the breakwaters of somewhere. I dragged myself up and rested on my chest, coughing water.

After that, I stared up on my back at the slowly brightening sky, which looked like it was getting ready to turn into a pretty day, and wondered why I wasn't back home in bed. More water pressed in my throat, and I could literally feel it settling in my lungs. This was a familiar sensation- to drown, forgotten and unremarkable...

Maybe I'd heard wrongly, but there was a commotion. Something... someone... no, multiple people. Maybe they'd bury me. No, that would be worse. I'd like to be cremated; then I'll start on that next journey across the Sanzu River.

"...-sama... wounds- Asami-sama!"

"The fires... they led here. Takaba...!"

Ah, that's the cat-petting voice again.

"Oi, Takaba!"

A man dropped next to me. He tore my shirt open. Most everything was a haze, but I remember chest compressions and nearly breaking my ribs, gusts of air passing through my lips, and then a sudden urge to throw up.

I'd flipped over and spewed the waters of Kowloon Bay all over the rough stones, coughing. My god, that was disgusting. I'm, like, never going to the seaside _ever_ again. I mean it. At least, the _sea_ part of it. I might survive on the _side_ part.

I was heaving with great effort. It had to be great effort – I'd apparently broken a couple of ribs during my epic swim from the wreck of the _Flying Dragon_ to escape the Dragon King's Palace. "Ow, fuck. I got shot...?"

"...the bullet just grazed you. There's nothing to worry about."

I looked up, into the golden eyes of my saviour.

Asami...?

Hadn't he gotten shot?

My mind told me that it couldn't be Asami, he'd gotten shot in Japan. Maybe it was the gift of the _Akatsuki_ – the dawn was the boundary of night and day, the same way that _Ōmagatoki_ was the boundary of day and night.

A morning breeze blew the smell of salt water into my nostrils. It was the waters of Kowloon Bay, that's my story, even if Asami keeps insisting otherwise. Maybe it was revenge.

"Akihito." He was using that cat-petting voice again. "I'm sorry-"

"Asami...! Why didn't you come faster?! I was waiting! I waited for you, you know...!" He hugged me. His hand brushed the back of my neck, and I breathed in the scent of the sea mixed with Dunhills, cognac, and- _blood_.

"You knew that I would come get you, you know?" He told me.

"I- If you didn't, I'll never forgive you, you jerk! I escaped the Dragon King's Palace for you! Take some responsibility, dammit!" I tore my head back, trying to pull his shirt open, check for the blood, but I was definitely as weak as the eponymous kitten since he found it so easy to just keep hugging me.

...I'd cried into his shirt.

I was definitely weak, and hallucinating, because as I fell asleep, I thought that I'd heard him say:

"I didn't think I made it on time. Don't toss my heart around any more than this."

Wings beat, coming closer. As I fell asleep on Asami, I thought I saw a crane alighted on the breakwater some distance from us, and then turn to Kou.

* * *

'Course, I didn't get a say in it, did I? I still ended up in Godmother's undersea place in Bali.

I shouldn't have fallen asleep, because I'd awoken to a reality check in the form of my godmother drumming a tattoo with her fingers on the armrest of an armchair. The _kiseru_ was doing overtime work, as plume after plume of smoke kept enveloping her head.

It wasn't lit.

"I sent Ewon to get you off the fucking ship and into the fucking ocean in a boat," she snarled once I was awake and extremely terrified for my skin. "Instead you ask him to turn the cursed ship 'round back to help the human idiots stupid enough to kidnap a youkai in the first place, get shot for your efforts, and then nearly drown. I taught you how to fucking swim! Did he fuck all common sense and self-preservation out of your head of something too, _Bakeneko_?"

I cringed when she referred to me with my species name. Godmother was smooth and cultured, not... wrathful. I'd really pushed the envelope this time.

"You got kidnapped because of him, and in the process revealed yourself!" She continued ranting. "If he leaks it out, you'll become the biggest traitor of the _youkai_ world since Hakutaku-sama! Do you understand the stakes, Aki?! You won't ever be able to return to your human life!"

She sank back into the armchair, having exhausted all her capacity for anger.

"Besides, what kind of idiot lets himself get caught by minor talismans?" she complained, the worst of her anger still building up. "That Hu Ximei- I'll cut her into ten thousand pieces and feed her to the sharks! Betraying our kind just like that on a chance of awakening the white snake blood, at that! Ha!"

"...Godmother?"

"..." She blew another plume of smoke. "Hu Ximei- your Kō-san. She knew you were hiding from the human Triads. Normally _youkai_ would help their own species first and foremost, but the bitch used you as a way to Liu Feilong for her own games. Her aim was either to hypnotise him or to awaken his demon blood. Either way, she'd induce her control over him and by extension the underworld of Hong Kong. With that, she'll have the power to blackmail an important artefact from me."

"D- Did you know her, Godmother?"

"She and I were there at the fall of the Shang dynasty – Yin, in Japanese. I fought on the side of Zhou – Shū, under Taikōbō-sama, and later I was the tomb guardian of Shū Bun-ō." Godmother's eyes narrowed. "You can say that you got caught up in over three thousand years of enmity."

A plume of smoke drifted as she blew her pipe once more – which was strange. She didn't need to keep pretending to be human with me. I already knew that she neither knew nor cared what being human was like unless we were in public, then the camouflage was paramount.

Now, she pushed a bowl of soup towards me. It smelt spicy and warming, so I took a cup. Kou passed by – scratches covered his arms, and he was limping, but he looked great. I presume that to mean that Asami's men had a really bad day or something.

"I've turned a blind eye to your amorous affairs so far, but we need to find a resolution to this loose end now," she said at last. "Whether to live as a human and kill Asami Ryuichi, to live as a _youkai_ and give up your dream, thus removing Asami Ryuichi from your life. Have you decided, Aki?"

"Well, that's not relevant at the moment," she decided as I sank back into bed with an expression of confused indecision. "But, when were you going to tell me that you could finally cast strange fires and raise corpses?"

I almost couldn't figure out what she was saying, over my brain trying to get working. "...eh?"

Godmother remained silent for a moment. "Your tail, Aki. Show me your tail."

I transformed back into a cat. My long tail, the proof of my supernatural potential, bobbed and waved about, its end having split into a fork.

Godmother didn't say anything for a long moment. She didn't have to. I was realising the consequences all on my own, even as she conjured an oxygen tank with a snap of her fingers.

I guess spatial bending on its own qualified as a very useful superpower if that was your only power for millennia.

"...well, who am I giving kelp to?1"

"Uhm, I don't think you can get kids from two men-"

"I have magic." Godmother blew a puff of smoke into my face.

"So," she said over my coughing as she strapped the oxygen mask to my face, "where's your new home, _Akihito_?"

* * *

 _ **Critiquez, s'il vous plaît!**_

 _ **1** **Konbu is a traditional Japanese engagement gift between the bride's and groom's families. In this case, konbu in specific is wishing the couple many descendants.**_


	14. 十三: Kohaku

_**Silvervine**_

 _ **An LLS Production**_

* * *

 **十三** **：** **Kohaku**

The moment corpses around me started walking, I knew that I'd have to move house.

I just hadn't thought that someone would've made that decision for me so soon and so unilaterally after Hong Kong, Bali, and then my return to Tokyo – punctuated by a party to show our gratitude to the _ayakashi_ of Kanagawa.

I was finally able to come home to my apartment after I'd left Asami's penthouse, only to find it mysteriously empty even of crates except for a single key taped to my door. My daily life... I'm trying to get back into work here, so why does he keep causing me more trouble?! Meow-woo...

At least I had my cellphone, which I called Kou and went over to his place.

Kou was the same as me, independent from the now-officially recognised Kai-no-Kuchi clan – a subset of the Yōkai Merchant Confederation of Kanagawa – and living in Tokyo as a graphics designer. He was also a nine-tailed fox, which would give you some idea of the difference in power between him and me. He, like Takato, was an employee of Godmother, unlike me. Growing up, he'd been the most mature of the trio – me, Kou and Takato – and was more or less our substitute guardian.

"You know, if you called Kyō-san she'll get Takato to steal your stuff back," Kou reminded me when I'd secured his floor for until I got my stuff back.

I curled in on the loaned blanket. "Sorry, Kou. I'll move out once I find a place to live."

"It's fine with me, I'm living alone anyway," Kou dismissed. "Tokyo might be getting too hot for you, though. Have you thought about moving back to Yokohama? Or that key?"

"Like hell!" I exploded. "I'm being made a fool of! I have a lot of things I want to do, and I don't like someone else telling me what to do! He's totally ignoring my human rights!"

"Uhm, Aki, we're not human."

"Well, then my rights as a citizen of Japan!" I complained.

Putting aside Asami's violation of my constitutional rights as a census-registered citizen of Japan, I'd had to explain to the editor my situation and pretty much beg for my job back. I'd gotten a lead on the idol Momohara Ai at Tōnan University Hospital, but that... was prefaced by the necessity of a B&E.

Namely, walking into Asami's penthouse, where I'd just walked out of this morning, with his fucking key.

I don't know if humans ever feel alien in a familiar space, but I definitely felt... different. For one, the only time that I'd actually spent in this place was- well, last night.

A thought had just occurred to me. I could topographically plot the progression of our... relationship... by geographical proximity to this place, in order of the... places we'd been fucking. Harbour Warehouse, Hotel Sheraton Bay, it's... weird coincidence.

I'm never going to tell Godmother. She'd laugh herself sick. And then, she'll go kill Asami, because Godmother's bipolar like that.

Back to the penthouse. My fruit-and-skewer assembly of horses and cows from this morning were still cantering on the kitchen tabletop. Asami the dumbass had even put them in a tray with a raised lip, so that they wouldn't fall off of the table. Being a cat, I watched them canter about out of curiosity until it got boring.

Besides, they'd remain animated for three days if I did it right, according to Godmother.

I found my stuff in a separate room. They were all in one room. Compared to the penthouse's size, all my stuff seemed especially humble... but that doesn't give you the right to move it without asking, Asami you bastard!

I should've asked Ewon how he deals with his lover. That was his topic of complaint like, apparently every single time Godmother's Korean friends met for their pot-luck bitching picnic. It was Godmother's favourite entertainment, outside of whatever she did with her copious amounts of spare time. The thing is, the last time I saw him, Godmother was giving him a bath in aphrodisiac wine designed to recover his stamina, so I think he's got his own problems with his lover/food source right now.

I mean, sure, this is a really roomy unit in a prime location... and I doubt even Godmother would find anything to say about it.

She'd said plenty of disparaging things about my last apartment. 'Bad Fengshui', 'too many obstructions' and so on. Sure she'd lived her life with all the superstitions, but she didn't need to run _mine_! Even if she had a point...

If I moved in here...

I avoided any thoughts about _tsukimono-suji_. For one, that would mean that I had the status of a household pet, and that was just depressing. For another... well, what kind of a life would _that_ be? A life where I'd be eating humans sooner or later?!

I can think about that later! Now I have to get my camera equipment out while I still had the human vision to take good shots.

But, as I leant to my camera cabinet to unlock it... the bastard had changed the lock.

The key... where's the key? Don't tell me...?! He really want to trap me in a no-win scenario, right?! Was this revenge for telling him that I'd be at Godmother's house tonight?! It can't be helped, I'm running with the Hyakki tonight, but I can't tell him that! I gotta get some photos for my job!

...don't tell Godmother. I haven't been cleared yet. And I think I'd worsened my throat swallowing Asami-

Erm, right. Liberating my stuff from Asami's clutches.

Alarms started blaring when I tried to move the whole cabinet, so I was left with the only option of a crowbar. Leverage is a useful thing to have, no matter human or _youkai_ , but let's hope that this _bakeneko_ Takaba Akihito can make it to Tōnan in time. This is me getting back into my normal life, meow-woo~! I just want to- uh...

I've never seen Asami's face at night... not because of anything on his part, but more of my own inability to hold onto human eyes once the sun had fallen.

I'd... like to see that.

But I can't tell Godmother, because she's likely to kill him first.

Godmother and Asami might be developing some mutual animosity between them. It might have started since the first time Asami kidnapped me, but the conflagration of mutual hatred really started in Bali with a burning bed – and I don't mean the type where things could turn like... well, Asami and me.

The passive-aggressive rivalry, though, really came to a head in the case of Momohara Ai.

I mean... what were the odds that the super-popular idol Ai-chan would be a _youkai_?

* * *

Granted, I hadn't started knowing Ai-chan as Momohara Ai, to be honest. It was at a pot-luck gathering that Godmother held in Tokyo that I'd first met the _rokurokubi_ later called Momohara Ai. On hindsight, it should have been completely obvious.1

"Alright, everyone!" Godmother had announced. "Today we have a new entry to our youkai party! Everyone, let's give a warm welcome to Tōgen Ran-san!"

I remember it, because Godmother was wearing _shochikubai_ at that time – it was the first lunar month of the year, so she wore bamboo in her hair, with a porcelain jumping horse as the Zodiac animal of the year, and her kimono was purple to better show off the white chrysanthemums embroidered on it. I remember that particular combination only because she kept bitching about someone else borrowing her pine-motifs _kimono_. January to February, thereabouts.

Tōgen Ran-san had been born human, but through her father offending a local land god the curse had turned her into a _rokurokubi_. She'd kept to herself, and chatted only with girls – and to be honest, she hadn't seemed interested in any of the guys that turned up at our mixers. Even if some of them were real lookers.

The next time I saw Tōgen Ran-san was at Tōnan University Hospital, where her stalker was threatening people with a gun.

I didn't like him; I punched him. It netted me an exclusive interview with Ai-chan, but I had also gotten chewed out by the editor and Mitarai for forgetting to take a photo of the crazy stalker.

Ai-chan thanked me personally... even if it became sort-of old news now.

She'd actually said. "Ah! You're-"

"Shh!" I'd pointed to Mitarai.

She got the point. We secretly swapped numbers later.

The worst part of my working day-night, though, was the sight of the evil _megane_. "Kirishima?"

Kirishima jabbed a thumb towards the car next to him. I peered through the opened window. "Yeah? There's a person there."

"...I forget you're detail-blind at night."

Like I could forget that cat-petting voice. "Asami?"

"Come inside. I have something to talk to you."

I seriously didn't want to see him at this point, at least for a while, but I got in next to him. The door shut, and the car shifted to move from its parking spot.

I wasn't going to incur more damages on his really tempting upholstery, so I cut to the chase. "Why are you looking for me?"

"The man in the hospital. Do you have his photo?"

And there was Asami's singular talent at driving me up the wall. It was just missing a free-fall, I swear. "So what if I have? Why are you asking?"

"Let me take a look."

"Go ahead, I didn't get any shots of him." I paused. "Well, there's another guy who took the photo they'll be printing tomorrow in the newspaper. But why so suddenly? It's not just a random incident?"

This is much more like daily life; ask questions, track leads, take a scoop. I gotta say this, though – Asami appears much less than you'd think. That's not to say that he's not a badass kingpin or whatnot; it just means he hides it better.

In this case, he's fobbing off the question with a full-face photo. "Is this the man that attacked Momohara Ai?"

I reached up, fumbling for the light switch. "May I?"

I didn't wait, flipping on the switch before I could manage to squint up close. Being painfully near-sighted is convenient when you're hunting prey in the darkness, but fucking useless if I needed to pick the guy out of a line-up. "Got the face shape," I added. "I smelled steel, oil, cordite, gauze, rubbing alcohol, plaster of Paris."

"He's been injured recently."

"No, he got into a car accident. Mitarai and I carried him into the ER." I rolled my eyes. "It's not like I expect him to be Ai-san's stalker!"

"And, the reason you were at Tōnan to begin with?"

"I got assigned the scoop, scumbag." This was my daily job, my choice. I can't leave a fellow _youkai_ alone when she's being hunted either, however far from the _youkai_ side of things her current situation was. "So, it's the gun you're after?"

"I'm helping my client to get back the gun, alright?"

It takes me a while to figure out the exact ramifications of the gun's existence, but you have to remember that I regularly hang out with people who break the Swords and Firearms Law.

Granted, they break the law about _swords_ more than _firearms_ , but I'm sure Godmother could scrounge up some gun _tsukumogami_ somewhere. Like, say, the Sengoku era. "And I was wondering why you came to me like this. Appearing so suddenly and all... now I get it. 'Cause my job's so _convenient_ to you. You bastard... do you have something else you need to tell me?! Like the fact that my house is empty?! _Or is that just inconvenient for you to ask?!_ "

I'd like to plead that I can't see that well about details, and my field of vision is two hundred degrees, not three-sixty. That was why I missed his hand groping my ass. I'd also like to think that my nails shredding his tie made him back off, but most likely he'd just finished locking his lips to mine.

"That prey is mine!" I snapped as the car came to a stop. "Don't you dare interrupt me, Asami!"

Then I got out and slammed the door behind me before I strode off. Damn him, damn him, damn him-!

You'd think I'd have gotten the message about not exposing myself to the winds after drinking from Kowloon Bay, but my constitution and lots of Godmother's _biwako_ concoction pulled through on that front.2 That was how I ended up running halfway across the roofs of Tokyo before I got a call from Ai-chan.

" _A- Akihito-kun? You're Kyō-san's godson, Akihito-kun, right?_ "

"Tōgen Ran-san?"

" _Ah, that's my other name. But please keep it a secret and call me Ai-chan!_ "

"I'm called Takaba in the human world too, Ai-chan. So... where and when do you want to meet up for the exclusive tomorrow? And then we can talk some more about your current problem."

* * *

"So," I crossed my arms the next day at the TV Central Office café, "are you feeling better, Ai-chan?"

"Yes..." Tōgen Ran, now Momohara Ai, nodded quickly. "That time I got sick after I drank some tea that tasted a bit strange..."

"Was it that guy the other day?"

"Perhaps... it hasn't been confirmed!" Ai-chan quickly added. "But he was the one who reported that I was sick, and stayed until the manager came..."

"You didn't know him before, right?!"

"I- I haven't told Kyō-san, but..." Ai-chan bit her bottom lip. "He sent pictures he took secretly of me and a note warning how my security staff wasn't reliable. That was really scary, so right now I'm staying at my agency's president's place. But he didn't get any of me going to our meetings!" She hastily added. "I didn't tell Kyō-san because I really wanted to keep talking with Kashima-san and everyone..."

"Shh!" I hissed. "We don't know who might be eavesdropping!"

"Ah..." Ai gave me a considering look. "I wonder, if I stayed with Takaba-kun, you would always protect me, right?"

"Ahaha! I'm not deserving of such bold words!" I shamefully replied. "The truth is, I'm a freeloader myself because of an inconsiderate person causing me trouble."

"Eh? Really?" She exclaimed quietly. "Everyone has their own problems, it seems..."

"But this isn't Ai-chan's fault!" I reassured her with great haste. "Ah, how about staying with Kashima-san and co.? Or, the Nura-gumi could help..."

"I- I don't feel too comfortable asking the heavyweights to help!" Ai-chan quickly told me. "And... I get the feeling that some of them make better idols than me..."

"Eh? That can't be right!" I exclaimed. "You're the super-popular idol, Momohara Ai!"

"But, think about it, the Nura-gumi's young master is-" she blushed.

I thought about it. "Ah, you're right... the Third is a _bishōnen_ in his own class."

"He's so compatible with Yuki Onna-neesan, their star power squares itself!" Ai-chan gossiped with me. "And there's the famous Kurotabō, Kubinashi and Kejōrō-san- anyway, the great houses really have the transformation down pat!"

"I once saw a painting of Godmother and the former Supreme Commander with his wife," I whispered to Ai-chan. "It was such a shock! He was super good-looking!"

"Really? How much compared to Mt. Nejireme's Gyūki-sama?!"

"They could have a battle of looks! No, Nurarihyon-sama might win!"

So we happily gossiped about stuff like this for a while.

"I'm so glad I met you, Takaba-kun," Ai-chan said at last. "I can't talk to my human friends about this kind of stuff, and few of my _youkai_ friends understand what it's like to live as a human being."

"And..." she looked away. "...I can't help but feel bad each time I talk to Kuchisake-san about beauty products..."

"I totally understand, Ai-chan -.-'..." When you had a mutilated face, I suppose all the concealer in the world would only make it worse.

I missed what Ai-chan said next, though, because the back of my neck crawled and I looked behind me.

"What's wrong?"

"No, it's nothing," I turned back to Ai-chan. "I thought I saw someone I knew, but I was mistaken. Anyway, thank you very much for the exclusive, I'll definitely send over the previews later!"

"Well, if you need anything else, just let me know!" Ai-chan brightened. "And let's meet for coffee someday! Not for a date," she clarified. "But as friends?"

"Of course! I'll be glad to!" The stalker got away because of me, after all. Still, I couldn't shake aside the feeling of someone watching us, so I'd convinced her to seek protection with Kuchisake-san. If the stalker had a gun, I'll raise him a _Kuchisake-Onna_!

* * *

Since Asami was the first to work behind the scenes, I pulled photos of the stalker from Mitarai and got to work.

A couple of days later, I'd assembled a neat profile of Onoda Mitsugu, thirty-two years old. He'd worked as a _gravure_ magazine writer, and then made the career switch to assistant to a big-time attorney. I'd staked out his house and found no sign of him, although the drones of corporate dress code milling around the apartment building might have something to do with that. Well, if they were staking out his house, they didn't know where he was, either.

I ran through my options. I'd reached the limit of my usual sources. Any more and I'd raise too many flags. Plus, if Onoda worked in the same industry before, he'd know how to hide from most sources. This was a human case, so I couldn't bring Godmother in.

I wonder what made him quit, staring at the key that Asami had left with me. Did he get too involved? Did he lose focus? Have I... strayed from my path too?

I don't know what path I should take.

My cellphone rang, and I answered. "Takaba, speaking."

" _AKIHITO_!" Kou's scolding nearly made me fall off my perch. "Did you forget today we're going to celebrate Obon?"

Ah, Obon. This lead is a dead end anyway. Maybe this time I'll just see about life in the _youkai_ world...

* * *

This time, I'd remembered to call Asami to tell him I'd be away from Tokyo for the next three days. I'd done it only when I'd fled Tokyo on what I'd termed the Haunted Cart Express.

" _You're_ where _?_ "

"Adachi!" I answered. "The town, not the field. Well, part of the field..."

" _And what are you doing there?_ "

"Well, _Dad_ , I'm delivering a message for Godmother. It's gonna take longer than I thought, since the other person's not in. I hope that hag isn't visiting other people again, I'm not going to Mt Kirishima..."

Hachigatsu-Bon is pretty good, plenty of places to celebrate. This time it would be the greatest celebration up and down the archipelago.

" _The person or the volcano?_ "

"Haha, bastard. Please don't start a gang war while I'm away," I replied.

" _I would hate for you to miss out on such entertainment. Be careful._ "

What the-? "Bye, scumbag."

He'd hung up. I sighed, because there was no way he'd rest easy if he'd known our destination.

I was standing in the haunted fields of Adachi, that was true. Fear had cloaked great mists around it – literally, that was the fear conjured by the breath of a mirage. In the distance, a floating animated lantern cackled, lighting the path of a procession of two.

One of them was my godmother, magnificently clad in a pattern of lanterns and fans against inky blackness. Hairpins in the shape of fireworks and one fan-shaped _bira-bira_ hung from her bun. The face that she'd drawn on was a fresh-faced girl, the better to put on the flashy stuff.

Godmother was really getting into the celebrations. "This is also to celebrate your safe return to Japan!" she'd said.

Since behind her she was leading the Goblin of Adachigahara, I forbore to reply. Kurozuka-baba can be a nasty piece of work.

A train of _oboroguruma_ were travelling, a bit like the old caravan trains of America. And by travelling, I meant they were flying. I wouldn't find a human who would call them comfortable, but they were perfect youkai transport to the second greatest _youkai_ Bon festival outside of Jigoku. I shared a cart with Godmother, Kou and Takato – we'd brought train bentos as well, which were a delicious snack that united the tastes of a filter feeder, an avian, an omnivore and a carnivore all at once.

"Alright, is that everyone in western Japan?" A high-pitched feminine voice had cried once Kurozuka Onibaba had been settled into her own transported and we'd all gone back to our own. "No toilet breaks! We're going to run all the way to Aomori like this! Final stop: the Mountain of Dread, Mt Osore!"

A band started playing. Takato ran out with his own keyboard to join in. All the flying youkai were dancing and weaving between the floating carts that barrelled through this night sky that defied all reason, seen and disregarded by man as nothing more than a dream. Godmother had lifted the back curtain, and she was now leaping up to the roof. I heard catcalls and callers as she was performing, most likely another dance made to the wild music of animated _shakuhachi_ , _biwa_ , _koto_ and _shamisen_.

A grey cloud passed by, and some youkai cried out as they got soaked to the bone, feathers, or flame – in some cases, all three. Lightning and floating flames and ghostly lantern monsters formed the illumination of our Night Parade of a Hundred Demons. It was like a demonic mirror of the yearly processions of gods towards Izumo, save that ours was headed not to the holy Grand Shrine, but to the heart of _chimimoryō –_ the collective spirits of the mountains and rivers of Japan.

I'd missed one of the two Urabon; the Kanto one was the one that urban _youkai_ presided over. This one, Godmother had actually paid out of her own pocket to bring me to – a celebration for the reason of getting me back into the swing of things. Like the Tokyo Obon, it would be a three-day three-night festival of merrymaking in the name of the dead and celebrating their lives.

I leapt out of the cart and transformed, shifting from cat form to human form to semi-human – that is, human with cat ears and a tail. I received several compliments, especially on how my tail was doing, congratulations on becoming a _nekomata_! Even if I explained that no, I haven't completely changed yet. How was I? Good, very good. Damn human forcibly invited me to Hong Kong. Oh, I heard the concerts are to die for...

The aerial parade dipped as the air grew colder. _Taiko_ drums resounded as we headed towards the mountain in the midst of a desolate plain. Below us ran the rushing gorge of the Sanzu River of Aomori – said to be _the_ Sanzu River, the one that led to the Underworld Prison of Jigoku. There was the complications of braking a train of independently rushing ox-carts and landing – none of which came with the facilitations of a designated runway.

Those that landed and kept skidding, just kept moving until they collided with a _nurikabe_ at the end, who was doing double-duty as ticketing office. Surrounding the festival grounds was a field of _higanbana_ flowers – red spider lilies. Laughter echoed, punctuated by collisions and one truly epic case of lamp oil colliding with fire.

The Urabon Festival at the banks of the Sanzu River was laid out in a line grid, like human festivals and lit by lamps. That was where its resemblance to human shrine festivals ended; _youkai_ of all sizes and shapes manned the stalls, selling foods composed of stuff that no human would ever touch and offering games of prize that few would recognise in this day and age. The festival stalls arranged themselves in a procession of the left and right banks, towards the red-painted _torii_ gate so large it straddled the Sanzu. From it hung protective _shimenawa_ intertwined with _shide_ – blessed hemp rope with paper streamers. However, if you were to walk too close, perhaps the strange fires of Jigoku would flare out.

Some things had evolved; they'd started offering shooting games, complete with the spirits of guns who boasted about their origins in Sakai. But, some things still did not change.

"It's a summer festival!" I joined the clamouring shouts.

Obon was under way – away from Tokyo and its everyday hubbub and rushing like ants through time. Away from the impermanence of human lives and the steel and the concrete.

This was the world cloaked by fear and magic and the night, this was truly the abyss –

...this is not a world where he can follow.

"Ran-chan!"

"Kyō-san!" A familiar voice exclaimed. "That's a wonderful kimono!"

"A- Ai-chan?!"

"No, Akihito-kun! I'm a _youkai_ here!"

Momohara Ai had indeed changed back to Tōgen Ran. Her neck was obviously elongated in this place where even day would seem like night and the _youkai_ needn't wear human forms, but now she wore it coiled like a cobra across the shoulders of her peach-pink _yukata_ , until it looked like a choker. Her head sat in the middle, made up in a simple bun, from which poked a classic tortoiseshell _kogai_ and _kushi_ combination.

"You managed to get leave?!" I exclaimed. Being an idol was very busy work, especially if you were popular.

"Sorry, Akihito-kun! I'm staying just for tonight!" Ai- no, _Ran_ -chan smiled widely. "I've already arranged with a nice _kasha_ to follow his cart back to Tokyo in the morning!"

"Oh, that's great! Let's go together!"

Yeah, who needs stupid Asami!

* * *

 _ **1 Momohara Ai is most likely written as 桃原 藍. An onyomi reading would work out as 'Tōgen Ran'.**_

 _ **2 pei pa koa (Chinese: 枇杷膏), is a traditional Chinese natural herbal remedy used for the relief of sore throat, coughs, hoarseness, and loss of voice. It is a throat demulcent and expectorant. Pei pa koa means "loquat syrup".**_


	15. 十四: Sharegaki

_**Silvervine**_

 _ **An LLS Production**_

* * *

 **十四** **: Sharegaki**

In the _youkai_ world, we count by three nights and three days, because night is the time of spirit activity. So, the first _day_ after a night of partying and rampaging, after I had followed Ran-chan and Kuchisake-san back on their ride back to Tokyo, Godmother woke me up in Kou's apartment.

"Ye-ouch!" I yowled, waking up with a truly terrible hangover. "Godmother-?"

"Get up, Aki." Godmother told me severely. "We're training!"

"Hah?" I glared at the clock. The toughest thing about being human was that I could no longer sleep fifteen hours on a stretch unless I was in cat form. "Godmother, it's... five in the morning!"

"Can't be helped. I was planning on delaying you the whole three days, but you managed to follow Ran-chan back to Tokyo," Godmother scoffed, placing a truly large _sakazuki_ cup the size of a waiter's tray in front of my futon. If Kou was here, she wouldn't have brought it; but, Kou was likely sleeping off a truly terrible hangover on Mt Osore this terrible morning in August. "You're going to practice fire."

"Ah? Godmother-"

"If you burn down Kou's apartment, I'm really going to skin you."

I leapt out of the futon. "Fine... lemme go freshen up-!"

I rushed through all my morning ablutions, unwilling to trust Godmother not to send me elsewhere in Japan before I'd even gotten pants on. Half my part-time jobs in high school had been ruined because Godmother got pissy and sent me to delightfully exotic locales that I had no idea how to explain to my employers. Such as, say, the Hida mountains.

Godmother wore a middle-aged face this time, and she wore jogging attire. No fancy clothes, which were probably for the best when juggling fire. I just tossed on a T-shirt and shorts before I joined her.

The sakazuki cup was put to use by filling it with _sake_.

" _Sake_ is the condensation of sugars converted into alcohol," she'd explained. "Since its origin lies in plants, it forms part of the Wood element according to Five Elements theory, which feeds Fire. Even if its nature is diluted by Water, _sake_ is still a useful fuel."

I wouldn't write the steps needed to conjure fire. Suffice it to say, three hours later Godmother bought me breakfast at a nearby café and sent me on my way with burnt lips. I'd carried some croissants and coffee for Kou back as well, and all was well... until I'd found the door ajar, that is. I'd also stepped on an A4-size envelope someone

"Akihito!" I turned around in the outside hallway of Kou's apartment. Kou was standing there, half-dressed, and while the full fan of his tails were hidden he'd missed the ears. Godmother's presence in Tokyo I could understand, but Kou was supposed to be in Aomori too... then again, if you had the chance to hop across Japan for a party and then return back home in a second, I suppose it's worth abusing that power. "Someone broke in!"

"EH?!"

Kou was really spitting fire – and I meant that literally, he was so hopping mad half his coffee had become ugly brown stains on the paper cup by the time he was finished. "They went through my computer! And they took my hard drive! All the work I did with Tetsuya is gone...!"

"EEEHHHHH?!"

I'd opened the envelope to find evidence of people stalking me. It was one after another, wasn't it?

"It must be the guy I'm after!" I'd explained. "I'm investigating a stalker right now. I'm sorry, Kou, looks like this is my fault. I think I'm being followed... I'm really sorry, I'll compensate you for the PC!"

"It's a company computer, so it's insured," Kou reassured. "But... you came back at three, and fell asleep... and you didn't see it?"

"I was drunk! And five through eight AM Godmother dragged me out-" I hesitated. "Godmother! This morning- the fire training!"

Maybe they didn't get photos... wait, Godmother had set up a barrier in Musashino Central Park. There's no way he could've gotten a photo through _that_. Even _I_ couldn't get a photo through that, and I actually know what I'm photographing!

"Are you in some more trouble?!" Kou blinked in disbelief. "We need to call Kyō-san!"

"We can't!" I pleaded. "This isn't a _youkai_ thing. Well, I don't think it's a _youkai_ thing. He probably saw me on TV or something."

"You're a photographer, not a police officer!" Kou reprimanded me mid-way through folding a paper plane. "Calm down. I'm still going to tell Kyō-san, though."

"Godmother would-" I stopped. "Okay, I get it."

I couldn't stop Kou's horrible _shikigami_ from flying out, so I just waited for him to take a shower. Then Kou came out later, with his bag slung across his shoulder.

"Listen," he started. "Today I'm doing fieldwork, and I don't know when I'll be back and-"

"You don't want me to do anything dumb! I get it..." I complained.

"It's 'cause I can't trust you," Kou honestly answered.

"Yeah, yeah, go already. You don't want to be late," I yawned, the perils of when you're a cat like me. "I got a photo shoot today. The one I got through your connections."

"Call when you're done!"

"What are you now, my parent?!" I shouted as Kou finally left, leaving me alone with a stack of glossies that showed, among some things, me getting into Asami's car.

I can't go to Asami right now. We're falling out... I think. And there's the fact that he thinks I'm in Adachi. Given the fact that he'd jumped to conclusions before, I wasn't in the mood to explain to him about Hell's taxi service.

Wait, isn't that an alibi?

We're both after Onoda. Onoda is after Momohara Ai. I knew Momohara Ai, but not as Ai-chan at first. And now I'm a target, even if said target kinda missed that I hadn't been in Tokyo since last night at ten.

So... if our mutual target disappears, Asami can't pin anything on me if he thinks that I'm thousands of kilometres away!

...why am I thinking like a criminal _now_?

First, though, there's the problem of finding Onoda. Is there a way to find him, that wouldn't put me on Asami's radar, would be faster than Asami, and would still let me get this scoop?

I frowned. The scoop was important, but somewhere along the line Ai-chan had gone from _target_ to _friend_. Getting Onoda out of the picture is more important than the scoop.

But if I thought like that, that's not the way of humans. That's the way of monsters. I chose to come here to live as a human, not as a _bakeneko_.

I AM a _bakeneko_! The people precious to me include a nine-tailed fox, a _tengu_ , a _shinkirō_ , and right now a _rokurokubi_. And humans, though I can't really talk about my world to them.

I was very certain, though, that I could not do this as a member of society. I cannot do this as a reporter.

...maybe, I should consider getting out.

My head is too terrible to break things down. What do I do?

I went to find someone else once night had fallen.

" _Akihito!_ " Tao waved from the Skype I'd managed to fob off a computer in an Internet café. " _Hi!_ "

"Yo, Tao," I greeted. "I'm sorry for calling you so suddenly, but I seriously need some advice. Erm, are you secure?"

" _I don't understand you adults at all,_ " Tao sighed. " _First it's that Russian man moving in, now it's you._ "

"Ah? A Russian man moved into Feilong's house?!"

" _Yeah, and he's so obviously chasing after Fei-sama! He's so irritating, even Yéyé would move his stuff around. Do you want to talk to Yéyé?_ "

"Ah, he can't talk through electronics... I think... anyway, let's not create another Sadako," I hurriedly excused. "You're... secure, right?"

" _Yes_."

"This is our game," I explained. "I'm on the trail of a stalker with a boom-stick right now, but the troublesome guy your dad also knows is also following the same guy 'cause of the boom-stick, and I totally get that we both hate stalkers and want them to disappear into the eighteen levels of hell, but I'm not going to give up this guy just because he's got a boom-stick, you know? But the stalker's after my friend so I can't give up, you see?"

" _Ah_ ," Tao nodded. " _You don't have to put a disclaimer at the first part. It's_ Shadowrun _, right? My friends play the Hong Kong edition._ "

"Ah..." he made a thumbs-up sign. "Sure."

" _I don't know the rules of your role-play,_ " Tao played along, " _but since it's all fictional, why don't you just kill the stalker and return the gun?_ "

"Oh, sure, I'll do that."

We chatted for a bit more before I logged off, walked out of the Internet café with nothing more than a plot.

Step one: get the best expert on tracking that I knew of.

Step two: find Onoda.

It was step three that was going to be a pain, if I was still doing this legally. But I wasn't. The price to settle all of this, the price to call for _her_ help now – that was what I was staking.

* * *

Mitarai's corpse hung from a tree outside of the entertainment firm president's home when I'd driven up to it on my Vespa. I got down, looked closer and sniffed; no, he was still alive.

The one who'd knocked Mitarai out was a woman with long hair tied up in a ponytail, wearing a trench coat. She'd donned a surgical mask this time, and was making fake coughing noises to disguise it. Nothing, not even a camera, would have seen her.

Only those of our world would see the stalker of urban Japan, one of the rising up-and-coming _youkai_ of modern Japan.

I held up two cans of ginger beer. "Kuchisake-san?"

"Akihito-san." She accepted the drink, deftly puncturing the steel can with the ubiquitous scissors that was her weapon. She also drank in a ladylike manner, with her sleeve covering her face.

"So, want to come help me find Onoda Mitsugu?"

She looked up. There was no light to see her face, but Kuchisake-san's eyes shone. "He's the bastard responsible?"

I nodded. "He has something I need to get back."

She thought for a bit. "Of course. Your _tsukimono-suji_ must be desperate."

"Ah, Kuchisake-san-"

"We should resolve this business," she stated, with the familiarity of someone who knew they were going to murder someone tonight and didn't care – considering that this was where the reputation of the _youkai_ named Kuchisake-Onna started, she probably didn't. "What do you propose?"

"Well..."

By dint of some hard work at sniffing, I'd tracked down the guy's regular haunt at Club Hime and found his apartment next to the president's house. There, I hung back and watched Kuchisake-san walk up to him.

She said something. I already knew the words, like I knew her legend and the fear it created in humans.

" _Am I beautiful...?_ "

I could hear him babbling. "I need to protect Ai! Get away from me!"

The gun made an appearance once more, glinting under the faraway light of a Tokyo that never slept. There was no way, however, it could be faster than Kuchisake-san, no way he would pull the trigger before she'd dismembered him.

 _Snick-snack_.

"It's done, Akihito-san."

I walked forward, donning a pair of rubber gloves. I gingerly picked up the gun, still heavy and loaded.

I looked over it. "Erm... do you know how to deal with live firearms?"

She gave me a dirty look before she waved to someone behind me.

The _kasha_ we'd asked a favour for rolled up, and its driver loaded both halves of the body inside and washed the road with bleach with barely a meow, simply nodding as Kuchisake-san flicked two _kōban_ at it and got onboard.

I rolled my eyes, lifted up the gun, and _breathed_.

* * *

"Ow, ow, fuck, ow!"

That was where Asami found me; in his apartment, using his toolbox-sized emergency kit to deal with my wounds. Apparently, when I used my brand new fire-power to cook off the rounds, the thing had exploded in my face due to shoddy construction. The gun, now reduced to a pile of half-melted slop, now lay on a kitchen tray with cantering cucumber horses and eggplant cows.

"...I thought you were in Adachi."

"There was a trip to Aomori involved, and then I flew back on a haunted ox cart," I added. "Which, by the way, I neglected to tell you simply for an alibi. Here's your gun. If you needed Onoda, I needed him as payment."

"For what?"

I gave a sunny smile, which cracked the moment I had to apply aloe cream on my burns. "Ow! It's very convenient for you – Godmother decided Onoda needed to be out of the way the moment Onoda decided to go stalker on my ass. Well, she would've done it beforehand if she knew, but this one really forced her hand."

Asami knelt down, taking the gauze from my hands and checking their burns too, especially my left hand. "I mean, where did you get these burns?"

"Playing with fire. I mean it," I explained when he looked doubtful. "I mean, it's a live weapon, so I decided to deal with it by setting off the bullets. I didn't know how to put the safety back on..."

I trailed off, my face blushing as I'd just admitted my ignorance to him. "...sorry about the gun. That's hard to explain, right?"

"I'll figure something out." He pulled out the disinfecting swabs and gently started to treat my hands. "I told you to be careful."

"I was! This is way better than toting a live weapon around!"

"Well, as glad as I am for your attempt at firearms safety, you could have called me to dispose of the gun," Asami sighed. "How did you track Onoda down, anyway?"

I tapped my nose with the hand not being treated. I winced – part of my nose had also been burnt, though the rapidly healing skin meant that at least I could hide all those wounds tomorrow.

"Of course." Asami sounded neither disapproving nor disgusted – rather, he sounded admiring. "It must help you a lot."

"It helps less than you think," I told him. "Good journalistic practice means documenting my sources, which is hard to prove when I said that I sniffed him. Well, not without blowing my cover."

"You have a skill that any paparazzo and tracker would envy you for," Asami noted.

"But I can't use it legitimately," I scowled. "I had the guy right there, and all I could do was try to out-compete you. I won, but it felt so hollow until I returned your shit to you."

"My obedient kitten."

I scowled, which helped with the pain when he finally applied gauze. The burns would be healed tomorrow, but disinfection was always best. "I'll never be your ally, stupid Asami!"

"But you'll never leave me, right?" He murmured, still in that sexy-ass cat-petting voice. "You can't. You're still flying back to me, even now. You're very cute."

Oh, now he'd done it. "I've returned your stuff, now we're square. Now gimme back my stuff!"

"Stay here tonight," he whispered. "You can pretend you don't like it, but it's an act."

"Ah... about that," I showed my tail, blushing as it waved daintily into his face. "My tail is starting to split, so I have to move."

"...that has to be the most unique excuse to refuse housing that I've heard so far," Asami said.

"I'm serious!" I hissed as he finished bandaging and turned to my other hand. "If my tail splits all the way, I'll become a full-fledged _nekomata_. I've been staving off the process by moving every time I made a connection, but I don't know why it's manifesting now. I'll be a risk to humans."

"You may be surprised to know this, but there is a deficiency of cadavers in this neighbourhood of Shinjuku ward," Asami pointed out.

"My karma is weird," I was grasping at straws metaphorically, since he was done with my hands and was now treating the more serious wounds on my face. "If my tail splits, I'll literally haunt you for the rest of your life. If you have kids, I'll haunt your bloodline too. Your family would become a cursed family, a _tsukimono-suji_ family."

"I am the only one of my family anyway," he'd sighed.

"And I don't want that!" I bit back, my eyes stinging from the disinfecting alcohol. "I don't want to become the family pet! I'm a wild cat, not a- not a _pet_ to be kept at convenience and drowned when the family ends."

Asami might have blinked, or he might have not, I couldn't tell over my blurred night eyes. "That's..."

"I got a human form for some reason, and then I pursued photography," I sobbed. "I couldn't even remember what I became human for, you see. As long as you weren't there, I could convince myself that my safety was at stake, or this is my job, or even my _godmother_...! But no, what I wanted was the prey itself, I wanted to catch him before you did, not for the scoop but to k- kill him... and I couldn't even do that myself, I had to get Kuchisake-san to help me. I can't do this if you're there, messing with my feelings and actions! And even when you weren't there, you're all that I could think about! There's a festival at the banks of the Sanzu River, and all I could think about was the fact that _this was a place that you could never reach_!"

"I fucking hate you!" I screamed. "You make me just want to turn back into a _bakeneko_ and move all the way into Hell! They even have a trashy tabloid there and Godmother would send me, that's how desperate I am to just- not be human."

I fell silent as he touched my forehead and cheeks.

"You're definitely not high," he decided. "Which just means that you're being a brat because you feel like it."

My instincts ratcheted up and I was prepared to dive, but a tug on my tail forced a yowl from my throat.

"I see you went to a festival all the way to the Sanzu River and didn't tell me," Asami continued, rather pleasantly despite the murderous aura from where he's starting to pull up my shirt. "Did your godmother bring you? Did she introduce you to nice girls there? I'd bet she did, that _bitch_."

Somehow, that doesn't feel... safe.

"Originally, I'd thought to be gentle with you tonight, and I will. You won't be using your poor injured hands until they heal, and you won't be on your face. I'll even be extra nice and put you in bed. My bed, that is."

Asami had definitely learnt his lesson from that time with the warehouse. The restraints this time were leather-padded chains, the kind that looped over my wrists and stuck them to the headboard of his freaking large bed. Have I mentioned it before? Because it's freaking large. And I lay there, trying to figure out whether I could deny his touch.

I can't.

"You'll be staying tonight, of course."

I wrapped my legs around his hips as he finally wrenched the cuffs off my wrists. The soft nickel-plated steel was bent. That was... awkward, and I couldn't move with his entire body weight on me. "Yeah. Left a note."

Not that I could move with your entire weight on me, stupid Asami! What the hell are we going to do? Relationships like ours... relationships between humans and _youkai_...

I craned my neck and pecked him on the lips. How was... how would he react? If I stayed here, in his house... was there something to start my journey here?

He... didn't react as expected.

"Are you _laughing_ , Asami?!"

I could hear his chuckles, even if I could spot his eyes in the half-darkness of the bedroom.

"Fuck you, Asami!" I slumped back onto the bed, since my hips were killing me. "Why do I keep running into you, really?! Actually, why do I keep coming back to you at all... lousy choice for a _tsukimono-suji_. Actually, a _tsukimono-suji_ like you would be too unfair for the rest of the world. Damn you, Asami... I swear, when the sun rises I'm going to leave for the _youkai_ world and never come back..."

Even though the case was semi-concluded, I suddenly got the sense that there was no way I'm gonna be able to dissuade Asami to let me go see the highlight of the three-night three-day _youkai_ Obon festival at the foot of Mt Osore. Which means... that tomorrow Godmother is going to find me, and by extension-

...I really, really, hope she doesn't set anything on fire.

* * *

 _ **Critiquez, s'il vous plaît!**_


	16. 十五: Kobicha

_**Silvervine**_

 _ **An LLS Production**_

* * *

 **十五** **: Kobicha**

The Onoda case was... fixed.

The Momohara case...

Where do I _start_?

It's like a horror movie, or some of the earlier entries that Godmother made me do that jumped all over the place. Kuchisake-san's method of handling the Onoda problem, while efficient, sort of came back to bite us in the collective ass. It got both Godmother and Asami involved, and it somehow escalated when previous history – AKA what happened in Kowloon Bay – got involved, until three crime lords were collectively declaring my godmother as their mutual enemy.

It kinda ended when Onoda Mitsugu returned as an _onryō_ , which set all sides in détente... somewhat, maybe. I don't know if anyone would survive their clash.

* * *

Before that, though, we need to start with the bit where Asami wakes me up and exhausts me over the course of two hours – the process should be self-evidently summarised using the total misnomer of morning sex – and then concludes it by dumping me in the bath with a "Please dress somewhat nicely. We're going out for lunch."

It's his fault that I missed the second day of festivities on Mt Osore, and he's still taking me _out_?

"I'm going to be in a dirty T-shirt and jeans!" I hollered back. "I may be barefoot!"

"We're going to see your Godmother."

I blanched and got to work. Asami and I, our relationship was one of compromise. With Godmother, it was either dressing well or she'd pull out the _tsukumogami_. And...

Wait, what does that mean? We're going to see _Godmother_? Asami was going to see her without the possibility of being fried?

In the end, I wore jeans, my sneakers, and a nice red button-down shirt under a sleeveless jacket. When I'd finished and got out, Asami looked up and down my body in a strangely non-sexual evaluation of my attire, and then nodded. "You clean up well."

"My godmother is going to disagree," I scoffed. "It's still what she's getting either way, isn't it?"

There was a car waiting for us outside.

Of course there was a car there. What am I saying?

I would've climbed into shotgun just to be contrary, but the giant bodyguard was already there. At least the megane assistant was in the enlarged back seat, which meant that Asami couldn't pull off any funny business. Even if the first thing he did was pull me to sit on his lap opposite the _megane_.

"Asami-sama. Takaba-san." Kirishima didn't turn a hair.

"Kirishima...-san." I blushed, but reminded myself that not even the bastard would dare to- I almost died of shame in front of the _megane_ assistant as I felt something poke me behind.

"Did she reply?" The scumbag just directed the question at his assistant. Maybe it's convenient because I'm sitting on the thing which most good office bosses would hide from their assistants.

"Yes, contrary to our expectations after what happened with Takaba-san's... retrieval." Kirishima coughed. "Fifty men in ten separate groups would be on standby at _Ikedaya_. After our previous encounters with the nine-tailed fox-"

"Kou?" I asked.

"The one who turned into a crane at Hong Kong," Asami reminded me with a frown.

"That's Kou. He just recently got nine tails, which is why he's still with Godmother."

"He's also part of your Godmother's... cabal, then?" Kirishima questioned me.

"By the same sense that I am." I frowned. "I can't say anything, because I don't _know_ anything. Neither does Kou, at least nothing this century aside from some parties. Where are we meeting Godmother?"

 _Ikedaya_ turned out to be a Japanese restaurant in the Ginza district, placing me squarely back in that kind of locale where the oldest thing around was the Kabuki-za Theatre. In between some of the skyscrapers were some shorter, more modest buildings, and _Ikedaya_ was one of them. It was a square building, with a sloping tiled roof and a courtyard and immaculately trimmed greenery. The pathway up to the double doors was lit by lanterns, giving off a softer light than electric lamps on either side of a paved path. Surrounding the building was a running corridor opened to the greenery, and in successive floors there opened balconies with bamboo railings from which shutters hung to shield from the elements in bad weather.

The doorman was all prim smile and eager hospitality, especially with Asami leading the group. "Welcome to _Ikedaya_ , Asami-sama and guests. Your companions have just arrived. They are in the first VIP room. Please follow me."

Ikedaya was a warren of private chambers with views of the greenery. The hostess walked us to one such door before she knelt and slid open the _shōji_ screen.

"Asami-sama and company have arrived, Hamasaki-sama."

"Let them in."

Oh crap, was my first thought. The room was intimidatingly Japanese in its formality, but none of it matched the fear that my Godmother commanded.

This time, she was wearing a sterner, middle-aged face. The _hōmongi_ she had picked was patterned with morning glories and dragonflies against inky blackness. More dragonflies hung about the bun of her midnight-black hair. The Hedgren handbag by the side, though, was a juxtaposition of Japan and the West.

"Why such a formal face, Godmother-in-law?" Asami mildly questioned as he took the place directly opposite Godmother on the low table. He didn't even know that he was courting death, the bastard.

"You aren't my godson-in-law, Asami-dono." Godmother delicately replied. "It would be far too much of an honour. Aki, what have you been doing to your face?"

I flinched, trying to touch the scratches on my cheeks as I shifted into the room, unsure of which place to take. The table itself was surrounded by a sunken part of the floor, like an open hearth. It left something like a bench around the low table. Kirishima got in, and took the place to Asami's left, which left Asami's right open. It was decided when Asami reached over, pulling me to sit next to him with an arm around my waist.

Godmother barely twitched. She merely pulled her _kiseru_ from behind her obi and blew a giant puff of smoke out.

The pipe wasn't lit.

Having concluded the stand-off with the reminder of her ability to incinerate Asami by breathing, Godmother then hummed delicately. "Akihito?"

"Explosions, shrapnel..." I trailed off. "My stupid move."

Her eyebrow rose. "I see that you've handled it." Her eyes fell to my hands, clenched on the table edge, and she gave a deliberate sniff, "With help."

"Y- Yeah... Asami's a great help." What the hell is Godmother doing?

"A shame he hasn't done anything about your sartorial choices," she continued with a pointed look at Asami. "Do you still need _biwako_ syrup, Akihito?"

"I'm good," I quickly replied. "Not coughing anymore, that's great, right?"

"Coughing?" It was Asami who asked.

"Convalescence in the case of near-drowning does involve the lungs, Asami-dono," Godmother reproved, before turning the full force of her attention back to me. "I've brought along some things for you, Aki."

So _that_ explained the handbag. "Really?!" I brightened.

"Yes." Her fingernails were lacquered, I noticed now as she reached for her bag. Each fingernail was crimson red and finely painted, and all of them looked sharp enough to tear me a new one.

Then I saw the item the fingernails were holding, and suddenly I wasn't worried about Godmother tearing me a new one.

"No way."

"It's summer right now, so I pruned the trellis and processed the prunings to make tea," Godmother continued, unaware that she was feeding information and ingredients to the guy most interested in getting me high and needy as she decisively set the palm-sized Tamatebako of my doom on the table and slid it to rest in front of me.1 It was a literal Tamatebako; she'd assembled a patterned box out of six different patterns of paper and made them into a cube whose contents, once opened, were going to kill my ass.

It would be _Asami_ tearing me a new one.

"Remember to control yourself." To my intense embarrassment, two mason jars; one with a white lotion, and the other containing a coarser grind of _matatabi_ grass, joined the box of cat drugs. She paused, like a wave rolling back for another strike.

"I know you don't like to bathe-"

"I do! I totally love baths! I bathe everyday! Or shower!" I hastily responded, trying to show that, despite being beat-up, I was clean and bathing against my instincts.

During the years I had just started to learn to be human, Godmother had started growing a trellis of silvervine at her retreat in the mountainous parts of Hokkaido. In order to get me to take baths, she'd resorted to drugging my bathing accessories to entice me. Granted, I was kinda a hell-cat, but surely humans wouldn't resort to addicting their young, right?! But this was my Godmother, and I'd learnt that if I shut up and bathed, she'd stop making sure I used the special handmade soap that was the fruit of her experiments.

She'd stopped... with the soap. She'd also switched to just giving me the fruits outright.

Fruit season was in September through October, and I'd learnt to dread that time. Godmother's trellis was always producing fruits, but that time of the year was that point at which the fruit itself was enough to drive me insane. I guess she must've terrified the vine into submission or something.

"Good." Two bars wrapped in translucent paper joined the pile, thumping on the table. "I made some bars from the sap I collected for Ewon on request, and I made too much."

Damn that Ewon.

"Also, last year's-"

"What do you mean, _last year_?" I demanded in exasperation. "Aren't they all done until autumn?"

Godmother gave me a look that shut me up, and then pulled from her bag a small earthenware jar with a cloth tied around its mouth. "Last year's _matatabi miso_."

Fucking _miso_. I'd been paying attention to the immediate fruits of her garden so far, I'd forgotten about the pickled stuffs. Even worse, it was joined with another glass bottle, this one vacuum-sealed. She'd made fucking _matatabi_ _sake_ – It was even labelled 'minimal alcohol' as a pointed jab at my alcohol intolerance.

"You need to return my glass bottles, by the way," Godmother added guilelessly. "I have the autumn fruit harvest and pickling to consider."

"You're so kind, Godmother-in-law," Asami responded, since I really couldn't say anything when faced with the impending death of my ass. I shuddered at the honeyed tone he'd sported as he noted _every single gift_ and their deceptive wrappings.

"Every person has their addiction, it's only in the management that differs," Godmother spoke. "I'm not your godmother-in-law, Asami-dono."

"But you are indeed kind," Asami the bastard was still grinning. "Which is why Akihito will try out _every single product_ when he gets home. Kirishima, do make sure that these get back safely. They'll make an excellent complement to the Bloody Mary treatment."

"Wait, you bought _that_...?" I nearly gave myself whiplash in turning to stare at Asami over the sound of Kirishima's assent. "Seriously?!"

"Hush, Akihito." Kirishima handed Asami a file, which was laid on the table as the megane robot left.

Godmother had taken a sip of tea as the appetisers – _nigiri_ sushi and sashimi and seafoods – were served. I started eating. Then she set the cup down and slid over a plate of _sazae_ , the turban shells.

"I do not think Asami-dono requested this appointment simply for me to catch up with my godson." Her statement was flat.

"Ah, this is my attempt to ransom Akihito." Asami held up the file. "I don't know if Akihito has informed you of this incident, but I have brought your godson to the Shisui Clinic for an MRI."

As technologically incompetent my Godmother was in practice, the same could not be said in theory. Her eyes narrowed. "I see."

"Dr Shisui uncovered proof of your godson's feline nature. After... certain incidents-" _Aokigahara_ "-Dr Shisui met an unfortunate accident, and his clinic was bought out to become one of my properties with an entirely new staff."

"Was it." Godmother's voice now turned bored.

The door slid open, and Kirishima returned to his seat. He tried to serve the sazae, but my hand shot out and upended it. There was a mild consternation with the two men until one of the horned turban shells transformed into a woman wearing a conical hat, who bowed and took her leave.

"Before you lies the original files, including the MRI scan," Asami smoothly continued, as if the assassination attempt hadn't occurred. "If released, it would prove a great boon to the scientific community at large."

"Or it may not," Godmother added. "They said the same thing about the Piltdown Man. What you are holding, Asami-dono, is a black swan. If I were a _youkai_ who didn't keep in touch with human society, perhaps such a method of blackmail would work. Is Akihito's name within?"

"Yes."

"Then you have a name to the sample," Godmother's lip curled. "I made the identity of Takaba Akihito. I can kill the identity of Takaba Akihito. Akihito the _bakeneko_ and Takaba Akihito will therefore have no legal link to each other."

I shuddered. It was a smart plan, but it was kind of chilling to watch my parental figure casually plan the death of my human identity.

"But you misunderstand my meaning, Godmother-in-law."

" _Not your godmother-in-law,_ " Godmother gritted her teeth, and ate one of the _nigiri sushi_ in one bite. I could hear the salmon fat sizzle in contact with her tongue.

Asami nodded. He reached into his pocket, and pulled a lighter. Still smiling, he set the file on fire. The ashes had barely curled before he dropped the file atop the only ashtray in the room, its smoke joining the smell of the salmon cooking in Godmother's belly from her rage.

"This is my intention towards Akihito," Asami carelessly punctuated that gesture with his words.

Godmother's _kiseru_ broke in her hand, causing Kirishima and I to jump. I laid a hand on Asami's, preparing to lug him out. Kirishima was evidently of the same idea, since he'd grabbed his cup.

Without even missing a beat – or giving any indication that she'd noticed – Godmother pulled a bamboo tube from her _obi_ and attached both metal ends to it, before smoking on the unlit pipe furiously to make billows of smoke surround her head.

My nose wrinkled as I smelt burnt prawns and mayonnaise – terrible.

Then she'd taken the teapot and refilled all the cups, and I prevented her from dropping a feather from her sleeve into Asami's cup. The thing about feathers from the Zen bird, you see, is that they're universally poisonous even by touch, if you don't have a rhinoceros horn on hand.

"Aki," she started after the feather had been burnt to a crisp and I'd pointedly tossed Asami's cup away from him, "have you decided?"

"Is this why you're trying to kill Asami?" I demanded. "I told you, Godmother, revenge is _mine_ to take."

"Take revenge and rip his throat out. Leave this world and return to our world. Or join this world, and never get involved with the _youkai_ ever again." Godmother listed my choices with alacrity. "I recommend the first option, for obvious reasons. There is still an unresolved grudge between us."

"Godmother-in-law must be joking." Asami added.

"I'm not your godmother-in-law."

" _Yet_."

The dragonfly in her bun bobbed with a turn of her head, and she blew a bubble with smoke this time, causing Asami's gold eyes to narrow. "You've been the cause of my godson's troubles for a long time, Asami-dono. You're a dangerous and careless man, and now you know what Akihito is. I haven't killed you till now, Asami-dono, because it was not my prerogative to do. But you are a man with many connections, and you pose a significant danger to us as a community. I've done my research on your romantic history as well, and I must say that it is not a promising assessment at first glance."

She leaned forward. "Aki is not a pet."

Then, she straightened back with the ease of long practice. "With that said, the grudge between our families rests with Aki and his fraying identity."

"W- What?"

"You see, it turns out that a significant investigation goes into people associated with Asami Ryuichi within the Organised Crime Control Bureau," Godmother explained. "People are going to ask where did you come from, Aki. They're going to ask very officially and with arrest warrants about your relationship to Asami. You'll have to disappear sooner or later. And it started when he not only raped you in April, but also when-" a twist of her hand conjured a small notebook, "-Liu Feilong came after you, and your intermittent meetings in subsequent months."

"But I'm a reporter!" I complained. "I went to school! I got an apartment!"

I was not going to focus on the fact that Godmother kept tabs on me. At least I knew how she kept tabs on me, unlike Asami. The _youkai_ rumour mill probably helped a lot with that.

"You're freelance," Godmother corrected. "I told you not to get involved with shady characters already, but _no_. You just _had_ to. At this rate you'll really be left with only one option."

I blanched. "K- Killing-?"

"If you did that you'll be of uncertain background _and_ a wanted murderer, dumbass," Godmother grimaced. "I'll have to give you away."

...eh? What did she mean?

"Well... isn't it fine now that I'm back?!" I gave a nervous laugh. "We got shot, but we're fine. And... I've found a home. I'll be moving after that scare with Feilong, so I'm getting back to my life now, Godmother. And, about Asami..."

I made a resolution, moving my hand to point towards Asami. "I will haunt him for the rest of his life! That's good enough revenge, right?"

Godmother blew a plume of smoke. "If you can be a dependent that lives in symbiotic relation to him, occupies his private space, saps his wallet, and threatens his assets in the case of separation, that's perfect."

"That makes me sound like a curse!" I sighed, relaxing back on the seat. Then I started as thunder clapped outside. It started to rain even as the sun was shining... I wonder which fox is getting married today?2 "You guys make a truce before I agree to anything!"

"Is there a need for such a truce?" Asami questioned.

"Against _her_ , yes," I scowled at my godmother, who simply smiled in complete ignorance of how many times she'd frightened me with her brazen obligated attempts to kill Asami. "Her attempts are just going to escalate, and I'd like my family to get along with my-... my..."

Kirishima was counting on his fingers, mouthing Godmother's conditions along.

"... my... anyway, truce!" I insisted. "The two of you aren't going to try anything against each other without notice."

The two heavyweights at the table gave identical glares – Asami looked like he'd rather go for his shoulder holster, and Godmother looked ready to barbecue him.

"Godmother, you start."

"He started this feud by _raping_ you!" Godmother hissed.

"And that revenge is mine to settle," I reminded her. "Or is there another reason you're trying to kill him? Have you even thought about the poor people who work here at _Ikedaya_?! Or the fifty reinforcements waiting?!"

Godmother laughed. "Only fifty men?"

OK, that number seemed kinda small when matched up against her. "What about those caught in the crossfire? This is uptown Tokyo!"

"And?" Godmother politely frowned. "Humans have the gift of prosperity, but live short lives. Natural or artificial shortening makes little difference."

Wrong person. "Ah... then think about me," I pleaded. "I... er, I... I still have to live with him, you know?!"

"If I kill him, you won't have to."

"But he lives in the human world," I pointed out. "He's, like, fully human. Not a _gitsune_."

Her eyebrows levered. "I know, Aki. I _checked_."

"Excuse me for my interruption," Asami cut in. "What does my being fully human have to do here with the prospective discussions we are holding? And this obligation to kill me? I extended the promise of a lunch meeting, with the expected courtesies of guests to be paid between us, Kyō-san, and they have not been observed. Unless it is _de rigueur_ amongst your... society... to attempt to settle a blood feud at banquets without prior establishment of a separate truce?"

"It is," I said. "You didn't?"

I stared at him, and then at Kirishima. Surely they knew you had to extract a verbal promise for this, right?

"In _youkai_ law, they call it the Nurarihyon's wedding clause," Godmother admitted.

Golden eyes fell wide. No, Asami hadn't known that Godmother would be obligated to kill him if she met him outside of a prearranged truce. "I see. May I enquire about the circumstances? They sound... enlightening."

"Nurarihyon got married at the establishment of the Edo _bakufu_ with a human princess," Godmother related. "The boy sent out wedding invitations, and forgot to include a clause of truce and the guest agreement not to cause trouble. So a group of armed mountain _oni_ come along and gate-crash the wedding on purpose, at a time when weapons aren't allowed in the banquet hall."

That was enlightening. For the humans, that is.

"In this case, the fault lies with us," Kirishima continued, standing up to give Godmother a 90-degree bow. "I have failed to account for the norms of a society that would not follow common sense amongst humans, and for that I offer my deepest apologies on behalf of our side. Yet, I must say that it seems... strange, that you would try so openly."

"..."

I looked at Godmother. She couldn't be _completely_ blind to the ways of the human world. She knew the rules of humans. Hell, she's lived longer with humans than most _youkai_ ever would! She pioneered a business model based on integration with humans! Yet here she was, deliberately flouting them in the name of incompatible norms to kill Asami just... well, it's kinda heart-warming that she'd go so far, but I'd really rather she did something _else_ than kill my... whatever.

Asami laughed.

I gave him a look. Kirishima gave him a _look_.

Wow, that was an awesome one. The _megane_ really had it down.

Asami chuckled, and then very deliberately set his hands away from the table of food and drink. "I understand, Godmother-in-law."

She bristled.

"I am not trustworthy in your eyes," Asami continued. "It must be tough on you, who know the true circumstances of the abuses that Akihito has suffered through his association with me. Indeed, I have an acquaintance with a few human parents who have been up in arms over less. And you have been very frank with me, because if you truly wanted me dead, there are less overt methods of trying. As Akihito has commented on your great age, I can infer that you are, indeed, familiar with the rules of the human world, including the unspoken ones. You could not have failed to correct Kirishima, or failed to expect similar retribution from me if you used very overt tactics. For you to stick with such tactics, I infer, could only come about because you took advantage of our ignorance of your society's rules to test Aki."

"Huh?" I blinked. "Wait, aren't you the one who asked Godmother for this?"

"Yes, and here I see where you got your gift for improvisation," Asami nodded. "See, your godmother doesn't believe that you are with me of your own will. That is why she used tactics that only _you_ would know – I was on guard, but her eyes were always on you to check your reaction."

I blushed. Godmother remained silent, glaring daggers towards the humans.

"After that, it's a matter of riling you up to check," Asami concluded. "It was very _enlightening_. Did I miss anything else, Godmother?"

"Perhaps. Asami-dono," my godmother breathed slowly, creating another puff of smoke. "Do you understand the consequences of your actions, starting from your first meeting towards the purpose of this meeting that you have convened?"

"Yes."

"You stand fast?"

"Absolutely."

Godmother's cup broke into a million shards from her simply clenching it. "Then... as the head of the Kai-no-Kuchi clan of Kanagawa, I will recognise, on a conditional basis, this... union... of our families... with conditions to be worked out formally,"

Godmother snapped her fingers of the hand not holding the _kiseru_ pipe to her lips. It looked like she was making an effort not to breathe fire at him. "May I trust you to... explain to Akihito in great detail, Asami-dono?"she bit out. "I believe it's tradition to... pop the question yourself."

"Eh?" I stared at her. When she used my name like that, the situation was kinda serious. The Kai-no-Kuchi and _Asami_? Huh? "Unified families?"

"Of course." Asami purred, looking both pleased and irritated. "Though I am curious about your easy capitulation, Godmother-in-law. I wonder, what kind of conditions would there be. The robe of the fire-rat, perhaps? A jewelled branch from Hōrai?3"

My appetite fled when I realised that Godmother wasn't even refusing the title of godmother-in-law. Uniting the families? What the hell is going on now? She's not even trying to kill him!

"...In my past, I was a cowrie shell born of swallows."

Silence echoed in the wake of that declaration. I mean, how does anyone answer _that_?!

"You misunderstand, Asami-dono," Godmother continued after she'd delicately eaten part of another course. "This is not the situation where I set an impossible task for you. There is no point in it. In terms of narrative causality, it only heightens the tensions and stretches out the plot of an otherwise predetermined ending over the course of several supernatural-themed adventures likely to shake the foundation of Japan's history. There is no need to risk that. The Emperor loved the Princess without all the impossible tasks, but the Princess still left for the moon, didn't she?"

"Well, humans couldn't fly then," Asami's response sounded amused.

"Humans still can't fly," Godmother pointed out. "It's machines that let them reach the skies."

The conversation went on from there with minimal input on my part, until the lull between one course and dessert. This is the bit where sparks kind of start.

"I suppose you have another job before going to the festival for the grand finale of Chūgen, if you wore clothes that allowed freedom of movement," Godmother had said.

The highlight of the three-day Urabon festival was the rampage of the minions of Hell rushing to escort the dead slowly making their way back. That was a great spectacle. "Obvious- I mean, yeah!" I replied at the same time Asami said "Not tonight."

"Huh?" I turned to Asami, nearly upsetting my position. "What the hell, Asami?"

"Language." Godmother commented.

"S- Sorry, Godmother."

Sorry, Asami mouthed. He'd never seen me being bossed around and not retaliating.

"I'll definitely go!" As I said those famous last words, I got the feeling that fate was conspiring against me.

"Of course," Godmother responded as Asami said "No."

Gold eyes met eyes that shifted colour like mother-of-pearl.

"Family visitation rights should be part of the conditions," Godmother started.

"All the way to Aomori in such short notice, Kyō-san? You seem very keen on letting your ward out un-chaperoned."

"Cute kids must go on a journey. That includes being independent."

"After the fracas of Hong Kong, I'm afraid his _independent_ journeys will have to be limited to the Tokyo special wards for the time being, with a _companion_."

"That would be extremely limiting if they were one of yours, Asami-dono. Humans are so _slow_..."

"Humans may be physically slower compared to your kind, but I assure you, we are _mentally_ quicker, which is why so many of yours are dying out..."

* * *

I snuck out as they started to ignore me over their passive-aggressive bickering, trying to reach Asami's car to dispose of the cat drugs. Of course, I was also sacrificing the sight of Asami haggling with my godmother which had segued into, apparently, some form of monetary compensation for Godmother capsizing the _Flying Dragon_. It's like watching housewives haggle with the fishmongers, except in this case Asami couldn't apply the seduction method.

Well, I'm sure he _could_ , if he wanted to get eaten alive. And if he tried...

"Akihito-kun!"

"A- Ai-chan?!"

I ran into Ai in the lobby of _Ikedaya_ by sheer coincidence. She looked exhausted, and glancing over her shoulder to jump at shadows. We chatted up a storm: she told me about her upcoming events, and I told her about my godmother apparently starting to work with Asami and uniting families.

"Who's getting married?" She'd asked.

The bottom fell out of my stomach.

I'd forgotten that in the circles my godmother ran in, such things were sometimes formalised with marriage. A lot of their previous exchanges were starting to make a sickening amount of sense, up to and including the comment on Princess Kaguya and the Emperor she loved enough to give the elixir of life, but which he burned, rather than face an eternity without her.

What... does that mean...?

Then my godmother's scream of rage tore apart the serenity of _Ikedaya_. "THE TRUCE IS OFF!"

I smelt smoke.

"Run!" I grabbed Ai-chan's hand and we ran as the _shōji_ screens started to burn behind us.

There weren't any reports of _Ikedaya_ being destroyed on my online update list later, so I chatted with Ai-chan and we sang karaoke at a tiny place. It's like holding a wake for my ass before the fact... meow, I have a bad feeling.

"You know, I haven't felt so good since I woke up this morning and Kuchisake-san told me..." Ai-chan stuttered. "I mean, I feel sorry for him, but... relieved, you know? Does that... make me less human?"

I blinked slowly at her. "I don't think so. But I'm not human anyway. I do know that he's the one troubling you and troubling others too, so good riddance to him. But you know..."

Ai-chan leant forward as I said: "I think... and I have no idea because they keep speaking in code... that Asami is entering a shared custody agreement with Godmother."

Over what, is the interesting question. Is there anything a human like him and a _youkai_ like her would have a shared interest in?

* * *

 _ **1 This is the Japanese equivalent of Pandora's Box. The Tamatebako appears in the story "Urashima Taro". The fairy tale inspired an origami cube design that can be opened from any side. If more than one face of the model is opened, the cube falls apart and cannot easily be reconstructed.**_

 _ **2 A sun-shower is also called a fox's wedding in Japanese.**_

 _ **3 This comes from The Tale of Princess Kaguya, where five princes seeking the princess' hand in marriage were faced with the retrieval of impossible items: The first was told to bring her the stone begging bowl of the Buddha from India, the second a jewelled branch from the mythical island of Hōrai, the third the legendary robe of the fire-rat of China, the fourth a coloured jewel from a dragon's neck, and the final prince a cowrie shell born of swallows.**_


	17. 十六: Kitsurubami

_**Silvervine**_

 _ **An LLS Production**_

* * *

 **十六** **: Kitsurubami**

Of course, Asami had to ruin the moment by summoning me back. I kid you not, Kirishima actually drove over to pick me up and drop me back at Asami's apartment building.

I had gone up to see the two most influential figures of my life glaring daggers at each other in the living room.

Godmother smiled.

I fell back a step.

Asami's sofa chair had fallen over. He'd drawn a gun and had the safety off, pointed towards her in a proper shooting stance with the sofa chair as cover.

I felt mildly impressed. She hadn't done anything but smile, and the dangerous crime lord was already trigger-happy.

"I want to peel your skin off, have you torn apart by carts, decapitate you at the waist and slice bits of flesh off of you, Asami-dono," Godmother hissed, still _smiling_ with the full force of her killing intent. "But it's alright. It's alright. That's for Aki to decide."

The smile faded, and Godmother blew another ring of smoke as she got up to her feet. "Then, if you'll excuse me, I have gifts to prepare. May I ask who is your intermediary?"

"My main assistant, Kirishima." Asami tersely replied. "I believe you've spoken?"

"And you'll be adding him to the registry?"

"Well, that goes without saying."

"I wouldn't be so sure. What's decided in one world might not be the same in the other world."

"Then I am sure you are able to interpret my meaning when I say that Akihito will be recognised as mine, _Godmother-in-law_."

"Hmm..." her eyes turned to me. "Aki. You missed dessert."

"Got out of the line of fire," I replied. "Ai-chan was there, you know?"

"Ai-chan? Yes, such a nice girl."

Asami twitched visibly. Oh, he was riled, alright. He'd probably shoot Godmother as well, if not for the simple fact that Godmother was smiling in the way that bared her fake, too-perfect teeth and still showed the demon hiding underneath the skin she donned.

"Too bad she's taken and _les_ ," Godmother frowned. "Is that the word?"

"I think you mean 'lesbian', Godmother."

"Of course. My mistake." She got up, still dismissing the gun pointed at her direction. "I'll be coming tonight at sundown. You guys work out the pre-nuptial agreement before I come back as your guest. I promise to behave accordingly."

Liar, I wanted to cry.

"And, Asami-dono. Such a small calibre wouldn't work against me." With that, she swept out of the apartment, the door shutting behind her with great finality.

I stared at Asami. "What pre-nuptial agreement?"

"Now I understand the troubles about in-laws," Asami murmured as he shoved me against the wall. I heaved a breath of a sweet smell, and my heart sped up as he pulled open my shirt. "She's a _bitch_."

"She raised me! And are you seriously talking about my mother figure like that?" I wrenched at his shirt, the better to get him and the _matatabi_ away from me. "What... pre-nuptial?"

"After a long argument resulting in property damages-" at _Ikedaya_ , no less! "-I managed to tell her that we're living together. By some norm starting with the Heian era, that apparently makes us married."

I blushed, because by now we'd somehow worked our way from the wall and slid to the floor. "Wow, that's dumb."

"It made sense to them," Asami hissed, nibbling the shell of my ear. "I had fifty men on standby if she tried anything more violent than petty poisoning."

"How'd-" I hissed, arching my back as my shirt opened and I wrestled with it while he tugged at my belt and the fly of my jeans. "-that go?"

"My insurance premiums are going to sky-rocket." The sigh was punctuated by Asami snapping open my jeans and tugged down my boxers. "A lot of it was justified violence. It got until she caught six bullets I fired at her that it became... a justified increase."

I would've made a wowed sound, but Asami swallowed it. "So... I don't even get a proposal? That's it?!"

I yowled as he reached down and grabbed my balls with a hard squeeze. "This is the first step of the proposal. I'm making an argument for the reasons we should stay together despite our cultural and species differences. This is reason the first."

"W- What's t- tha...?"

He gave a harsh stroke and twist, and I came embarrassingly quick for the first time before he flipped me onto my stomach and pulled my jeans down to my ankles.

"The sex is good."

"I'm a guy!" I hissed back.

Asami smiled. "You are mine."

"Fuck you." I shivered as his grip moved to my ass.

"I intend to."

I blushed as his fingers went to unmentionable places and did unmentionable things- %&*AS/FT^? *U(! I can't say it. I won't say it, since I already said it all over the floor of the entrance hall! This is my recollection, I'm allowed to censor all the bits I want!

...he doesn't have cameras, right?

"Reason the second," he listed sometime around migrating to the kitchen counter and my first _matatabi_ refractory period – which is linked in no way to my sexual refractory period, but about to get very acquainted, "is linked to the fact that I want access to my sweet juice."

I grimaced from my perch on the counter. That was the expensive olive oil he'd knocked over. "You hate sweets."

"I like you."

"Oh, shut up!"

The third reason came up in the bathroom, where Godmother's gifts turned into implements of my torture at Asami's hands. So much catnip, and she'd added a flowery smell I identified as Tartarian honeysuckle, dammit. This time we did it in the bath – I scrubbed it later, I swear!

"I saw you running around the wharves, you know," Asami's husky whisper echoed around my brain and rattled the cages of my thoughts as it travelled into my head. Or maybe it was the pounding I took as my back lined up with his chest. "In Hong Kong. Beforehand, Yoh said that you were so desperate to travel north, that you'd drown yourself, but then you changed and just ran around. I plotted your course on a map that would've homed in on my direction. Face it, Akihito. You have a homing instinct for me."

"Gee, is that always why I fall from great heights when you're involved?!" I bit back in a rush, and then he chucked his fingers into my mouth.

"Fall for me, Akihito."

…

Now I'm blushing just thinking about it.

Fucking bastard.

The good news, was that the bath removed the _matatabi_ scent from Asami, which let me clear my head – if only my ass would stop throbbing.

"Two guys can't get married in Japan," I wheezed. "There's adoption, which I guess is the procedure you guys agreed upon, but that still opens a possibility of you getting a... a _wife_."

"You're the wife in this scenario."

I ignored him. "I won't be your bit on the side. I still have that much pride! And... and sticking to just the human world for now, what about you? And your criminal scumbag activities? I still have a job that's aimed to bring you down! Let's not forget friends, family, and our pasts... I don't know anything about you other than the obvious!"

"Really?" He purred. "State what you know."

"A- Asami Ryuichi, thirty-five years old on the fourth of this month," I stuttered. "Blood type AB, shoe size 28 cm. Likes Japanese food, dislikes sweet foods- wait!" I'd had a thought. "Lunch- you didn't have any!"

"Kirishima had a prepared bento," Asami sighed. "Thank you for your concern, though. Continue with the profile."

"Erm... you own mainly clubs, the main one being Sion which you operate from," I counted off of my fingers. "I can't prove it with human means, but there's rumour of drug smuggling, gunrunning and money laundering. You're also a criminal scumbag, but I can't prove that either, unless I wanna show the pics you took that time. You have a history with Feilong and his family where they ended up dead and Feilong in jail for killing his biological father in a weird crossfire thing. You like Dunhills, and you keep a fondness for the hard alcohols despite your food preferences. Kirishima-san is your main assistant, and the guy I see most around you. And... when I was drowning, you showed thorough knowledge of cardiopulmonary resuscitation practices to resuscitate me despite reopening a bullet wound for some reason I don't know why-"

Asami pulled me to his chest then, with my left – still human – ear slamming over his heart. "Isn't it obvious?"

"I wouldn't know," I honestly replied. "I'm not human. I've lived... twenty-three human years, which to a cat is a complete lifetime. Eighteen of those years were spent with Godmother. I learnt the rules, and I learnt a bit of the combat arts, and I picked up a lot of things and raised hell and then moved to Tokyo to pursue photography. Only humans have so many rules. And before that I was a cat. I don't even think I was self-aware. Eat, sleep, and hunt."

Asami held up his left hand. There were prominent bite marks on it. "Hunting."

"Sorry for drawing blood," I blushed and then paled. "And... that was delicious, but does that count as human flesh?!"

Asami just blinked as I turned around to check my tail, and kept turning until my tail ended up in front of me. I watched in horror as the forked ends of my tail grew longer, and the bends of the fork deepened down the length of my tail.

"Fuck," I hissed as my vision began to blur and take away the clarity of my situation from me. "Is it sundown already?"

"No, Akihito." Asami's voice turned into the cat-petting version. "There are glasses. Sight aids."

"I don't need them, I need to see distinct colours!" I snapped back. "I need a way not to turn into a _nekomata_. I don't want to leave human society."

"But you don't have to." Asami pointed out. "A _nekomata_ is essentially a cat with human-level intelligence and necromantic powers."

"You don't understand!" I shouted. " _Nekomata_... _nekomata_ eat humans. That's why all the _nekomata_ either leave human society to try and become human, or they fail at it and turn into _kasha_! I don't want to become part of Hell's express taxi service! I don't want to endanger anyone! I don't want to eat you, Asami."

"It's alright," Asami whispered to me. "You can be a monster cat or a hell-cat, you're still my kitten."

"...Eww," I said, because the alternative would render my pride useless. My pride was rendered useless when he took me against the wall.

"The last thing in my profile that you missed out," he whispered in my ear as I was about to black out from too much sex. "is that I love you."

I must have been hallucinating. That can't be right. Asami gives his heart to nobody, and I definitely won't give my heart to him! I'm going to tell Godmother that... after I wake up.

* * *

It was five PM when I'd finally woken up from an extended siesta due to being too exhausted. I know this because Asami's cellphone started singing the Beauty Song next to his enormous bed.

"Did you _have_ to?"

"Well, sing something else and I'll replace it," Asami replied, pressing a button on the phone screen to answer it. "Kirishima."

His lips twitched. "Noted. Send the catalogue up to me."

Then he'd hung up. "Godmother has a habit of ignoring security to send the items directly to me, it seems."

"She's not your godmother!" A thought occurred to me. "She didn't mail you a bomb, right? 'Cause Ai-chan's got a girlfriend- erm. I'm not supposed to out other people."

Asami still looked like he was going to find Ai-chan the next chance he got, though. "Apparently, Godmother's been calling Kirishima every hour to figure out if you've accepted my proposal."

"..."

"According to Kirishima, she's torn between pulling a hit on me or preparing the engagement gifts," Asami continued smugly, the bastard.

I groaned. I'd gotten an idea about Godmother from Takato's wedding to one of Mt Takao's _tengu_. They'd gone the whole nine yards, up to and including swords. Godmother, I appreciate your sentiment, but even you don't believe that I can reject this bastard?! "...out of curiosity, what happens if, hypothetically, I refuse?"

"Then I suppose Godmother would be obligated to try and kill me. Again." Asami gave a rueful glance about. "Arson might be involved."

That was... upsetting.

"She... she said it was a curse," I muttered quietly. "What the fuck?! How does she think that marriage is a curse?!"

Asami ruffled my hair. "You said that you plan to haunt me for the rest of my life. Her words were, I believe: 'If you can be a dependent that lives in symbiotic relation to him, occupies his private space, saps his wallet, and threatens his assets in the case of separation, that's perfect'. If I have to imagine, from her perspective the status of a wife fits all those conditions."

I gave a strangled cough.

"Now, if you were an unattached _bakeneko_ , apparently our moving in would suffice as a marriage in the _youkai_ world as an agreement between a _tsukimono-suji_ and a spirit," Asami continued in our bizarre version of pillow talk. "However, your godmother is my counterpart in your world, which complicates things."

"How is my godmother _your_ counterpart?!" I exclaimed. "She runs a matchmaking company! A failing one!"

"The act that really drew her ire at lunch today was the NTA investigation I accidentally called upon Kai-no-Kuchi Matchmaking over the course of my own investigation," Asami chuckled as he started to maul me into the mattress again. "Your godmother not only changes faces daily, she changes other people's faces too. I can't actually prove it, but her activities are all geared towards the provision and disappearance of the legal identities of _youkai_ who enter and leave human society. She confronted me with that evidence, which resulted in additional costs paid out to _Ikedaya_."

That was... unexpected, but unsurprising. But if Asami had accidentally called down the authorities, no wonder she was so hopping mad.

Identities like...

Hamasaki Nanami.

Momohara Ai.

Takaba Akihito.

"Oh shit."

"I agree," Asami murmured. "When you compare the earlier tales where demons kill and skin humans to pretend in older tales, Kai-no-Kuchi is relatively bloodless and promising. The moment I have your records in the registry, I may have to resort to the concept of a bride price to pay her back."

I jumped out of the bed. All of my earlier euphoria had come crashing down to earth, into all the miseries and despairs of the suddenly un-personed. "There's no way that can happen now," I heard myself saying, as if I was very far away from my ears.

"Now what's this about?" Asami sounded amused.

"No, as in, Godmother arranged the identity of Takaba Akihito." I looked at Asami. "Which means that sooner or later, the authorities will realise that Takaba Akihito doesn't exist."

* * *

"Don't worry, Takaba-san registered you under his registry at my request," Godmother assured me when she arrived at our doorstep at the stroke of five, after my meltdown and subsequent transformation to hide under the bed. "I used to work in the Bureaucracy of Jigoku before I got a topside assignment. You lived as a human, you have friends as a human and so on. You can get married- I mean _adopted_."

"I need to light a lamp for Takaba-san, then." Asami grunted in his sofa chair, pulling another Dunhill from the pack to put between his lips. He then dragged me onto his lap, ignoring my perfunctory struggles.

"This would have been good news to know earlier, Godmother," he frowned.

"I am rather good at _improviso_ ," Godmother shrugged carelessly. Her face was young and smooth, and her hair bore the motifs of fireworks and fans, to match the red spider lilies of her violet _yukata_. "If Aki refused, I would've let the Japanese bureaucracy stop any more negotiations. I got my answer after Kirishima-san called me to ask for the details of Aki's registration."

"And I got a heart attack!" I complained. "Godmother, you're terrible! What was this whole thing for? Are you really going to... to put me with this bastard?!"

Godmother looked at me. "I assure you, his parents were married."

" _That's not the point!_ "

"Well, you're a troublemaker at heart," Godmother counted on one finger. "And we can't rely on the government. They change their Prime Minister every year, and the police don't recognise the existence of _youkai_. Plus, after I borrowed the Takarabune fleet, I was requested to curtail my overt activities, which limits my ability to protect you somewhat and still maintain some face with the community at large. I was just considering the option to turn you into a cat and leave you at some shrine, but then you keep talking Asami this and Asami that and he actually went to Hong Kong to find you."

I blushed, only because Asami kept grinning.

"You live mainly in the human world, and so does he," Godmother continued. "The shared history between you is rather difficult to stomach, but there have been stranger pairs," she added the last sentence like it was supposed to be a compliment.

"So your basis for... _this_... is-" I groaned. "Godmother, that's not only mercenary, that's flat out unfair to the both of us. You didn't even ask!"

One eyebrow lifted up.

Just _one_.

That would be an unfair display of muscle control, if I didn't know that her face was as fake as... as... well, it wasn't _hers_. "You're talking about each other as a unit. You're factoring in _his_ side of the matter at hand. Your interests are tied in the matter of _tsukimono_ and _tsukimono-suji_. As far as we are concerned, you have bound yourself to him and his line until its end... which will come in either a hundred years or never, depending on how they reproduce."

"So I'm his _tsukimono_."

"Thank you, Akihito," Asami smirked.

"You're welcome- NO! I mean, I'm my own person!" I shook my head. "There's no need to discuss p- _pre-nuptials_ , or e- _exchange_ gifts or shit, because we're... we don't need to get married!"

"You're living in his house."

"It's more convenient."

"You're cooking, cleaning, and-"

"It's paying my rent!" I argued before Godmother could say anything else. "I pay for the groceries out of my own pocket!"

"... _Really_? I'll bring over some more _katsuobushi_." Godmother's arch tone drew two winces. Asami didn't even _know_ that she was subtly jabbing at something.

But what drew her ire this time, I don't know! "We're good!" I groaned. "I'm probably better suited to being a household assistant, at the rate I keep cleaning up after messes."

Asami slapped a hand over his eyes.

At the same time, Godmother groaned quietly, shaking her head. Uniting people in annoyance against me – the secret to world peace!

"If it helps, you can say that this is a shared custody arrangement between Asami-dono and the Kai-no-Kuchi clan, with you as the subject of custody, Aki," Godmother smiled at me.

"I can take care of myself," I lamely replied.

Godmother looked at my hands, my clothes, and then gave an even more pointed look around. "Is that why the only reason you're close to a healthy diet now is because of _you_ , or because of someone else's preferences feeding into your food budget? You'll do it for my peace of mind, wouldn't you?"

Asami was laughing, I swear. "He would."

"My point exactly, Asami-dono. I had to see my son settled with a capable protector, since he refuses to let me be the one. You'll do." Her lip curled. "For now."

"Agreed." Asami gravely hummed. "I presume you came earlier to settle this matter, Godmother?"

"The only difference right now is..." She looked at Asami and spoke something in Chinese.

I asked Asami to translate later. Asami laughed himself sick, and kept mum over distractions with _matatabi_. It was a trap, Asami said.

I'd called Feilong and aped my godmother's pronunciation. _He'd_ laughed himself sick and sent Asami a picture of two mandarin ducks two weeks later.

I don't get it, what does _qŭqī_ and _nàqiè_ mean? Why are they all laughing? And why is it resolved by his answer, _qŭlăopò?_

Whatever he'd replied to Godmother, though, struck her dumb. Then she giggled and gave a bob of her head, an inclination of acceptance, if not complete welcome.

...I thought they were enemies? -.-'

Godmother pulled a suitcase out of thin air then. "Your assistant printed, signed and stamped his and your parts for you, Asami-dono. Aki, you'll need your official seal for this."

"If this clashes with my job, the deal's off," I warned her, because apparently it was a foregone conclusion that she was leaving my affairs in the human world in trust to _Asami_. Fucking hell. "And I'm only doing this to give my godmother some peace of mind, Asami."

"You can find other things to photograph."

"You could go into paranormal photography," Godmother replied without missing a beat. "The intersections between our worlds are much closer than you think."

I shuddered. "Do you _want_ me dead or something, Godmother?"

"Go get the seal, Aki."

I grumbled, but went to my camera bag and pulled out both seal and proof of registration. I know you're supposed to keep them safe or something, but I'm super dirt poor.

The documents had been spread out before Asami, and he was reading through them with a grin. "They just need your signature if you're legally qualified to sign, brat."

"You sure you haven't grown short-sighted, old man?" I shot back, pointedly sitting next to Godmother. "What am I signing?"

"A legal contract between three parties, establishing that: in exchange for the recognition of you two living together, the Kai-no-Kuchi clan and its lower affiliates will not make an attempt on the life of Asami Ryuichi, whether by action, inaction or any deliberate intent with foreknowledge on my part, for the duration of your resting within his dominion, to be terminated at the moment of your wilful departure from his reach." Godmother replied. "It also works like a will where, in case you die, he gets your property. Since you have no property at _all_ -"

"Oi!"

"-it works out," Godmother finished.

"That makes no fucking sense!"

"It's the first bit that's more your concern," Godmother sighed. "You can leave at any time, Aki."

Asami slid the documents across the coffee table along with a pen. "At least now you know that none of your family would be gunning for my head, except you."

I stuck my tongue out at him and read on. "That's a great idea."

Since the first page of the stack was made up lots of Kanji I didn't get, I just signed and stamped the relevant portions pointed out to me. I'd barely squinted at, signed and stamped the last page when Asami snatched the papers out of my hands and looked over each one briefly before handing it back to Godmother – sans the last page.

"Why'd I have to sign two copies of the same document, by the way?" I asked, because the last document was actually a copy of the second-last document.

"Selkies and crane-wives... if I ever have to visit the Black Rider to settle Irish-Japan relations, just shoot me," Godmother sighed as she took the entire chunk of paper, folded it into a bird, and then sent it flying in an impromptu paperwork _shikigami_ out of the nearest window. "Official stuff done, now let's go, Aki! The last day of Urabon!"

The mood had already whip-lashed from the previous seriousness of signing the equivalent of an armistice between Asami and my godmother. She still didn't care.

"He's not going without an escort," Asami snapped. "We agreed on this."

"It's a family outing, so we would be glad to welcome Asami-dono along."

Godmother's happy mood soured as we stared at her. "I don't like him," she clarified, "and I don't understand – well, I understand in an academic sense that he's an excellent mate – I don't understand why you didn't kill him the first time, Akihito, but I am willing to acknowledge his relative importance to you right now."

I thought about the alternatives. The fact that Godmother was trying, however grudging, to be supportive, was... nice.

Wait, I'm not-!

"Of course, I'll still kill him once you leave." Godmother gave a guileless stare. "Isn't that what godparents do?"

"I think that might be a bit extreme," I lamely finished, but Godmother ignored me to turn to Asami.

"You can be armed, Asami-dono," she purred. "You've seen the effectiveness of normal guns against me, but do you have anything more than a century old?"

His face remained stoic. Then he stood up and walked towards his room. I heard a wall shift – the secret room? I groaned as he dragged out part of his special collection and set on the table one of the guns.

" _How_?" I exclaimed.

"Money talks," Godmother picked up the gun, efficiently doing something to open the cylinder while pointing the business end towards the window. "Colt 1873 Single-Action Army, Quick-Draw version, walnut grip. Mint condition."

"You know your guns."

"I liked derringers better." She closed the gun back, muttering words that caused my hair to stand on end.

Asami looked at me as I backed away from the workings she was doing. The iron, gunpowder and oil had mixed into death, carrying with it an awakened, purposeful intent to kill. Godmother had awakened the century-old tsukumogami within the metal and wood, and set it to kill with little more than a whisper of power.

"I am a _youkai_ , so my powers will fade with the rise of _yang_ ," she said as she slid it back to Asami. "It lasts until noon tomorrow, by which time you should be back in Tokyo. In bed."

"Thank you, Godmother." Asami took back the gun. "I can see why Aki keeps going to you to escape me."

Godmother stood up. "Kou and Takato are already there. The trip will take two hours. Do you need anything else, Asami-dono?"

"I'll need to get changed first."

Asami changed into a buttoned shirt and slacks, the better to show off his shoulder holster – I swallowed as the shirt really fitted closely to him. I saw Asami type something on his phone before he slotted it into his pocket and led the way to the door. I snorted, making a mental reminder to get him to shut it off. No need to bring Sadako back with us.

I wore my jeans, a singlet and sneakers. If Godmother really had issues, she could deal. She didn't, but she did sigh.

"By the way, Asami-dono, please do not reveal that you are human. Otherwise, I might not be able to guarantee your life." She smiled. "Well, then, welcome, and take your first steps into our world."

* * *

 _ **Critiquez, s'il vous plaît!**_

 _ **A/N: What she actually asked Asami was: 'are you getting a wife or a concubine'? See, Kaigara comes from a long history where a man could keep several women in the same household, but the first wife is still chief of the household and legal wife. The position of the wife comes first, even if both are recognised categories of sexual partners. Wives were married with dowries in a ceremony. Concubines could be taken without any of the ceremonies used in marriages. A concubine's treatment and situation were highly variable, and were influenced by the social status of the male to whom she was engaged, as well as the attitude of the wife. That's why there's an old saying: 'marry for virtue, take a concubine for pleasure' (娶妻娶德， 纳妾纳色).**_

 _ **The trap is: if Asami admitted that her godson is a concubine, the whole deal's off.**_

 _ **Asami's response: 'marrying a wife' (in modern Chinese). Taken in context, this means that there's only going to be ONE wife.**_

 _ **– LLS**_


	18. 十七: Nanohana

_**Silvervine**_

 _ **An LLS Production**_

* * *

 **十七** **: Nanohana**

Unsurprisingly, Godmother had parked two _oboroguruma_ on the fucking roof, and both of them were visible, if Asami's expression of half-cautious awe was any indication. I opened my mouth to chew her out, except that she pushed me into one cart, into which Asami got in from behind.

The curtain of the haunted ox-cart fell, and then a voice spoke: "This is Hell's Taxi Service, and I'm your driver for today, Kogarashi! Please keep all limbs within the vehicle during lift. You're Kaigara-sama's guests, right? Please take care of me!"

"You can talk?" Asami replied.

"Yep! Kaigara-sama felt that you might want a running guide while we're up here. It's your first time going to Hell's Urabon, right?"

"Hell's Urabon?" Asami sounded much more cheerful than I felt. "Akihito, was the festival not on the banks of the Sanzu River?"

"It is," I replied. "The Sanzu River Urabon is an extension of the Urabon being celebrated in Jigoku. We call them both Hell's Urabon, but most of us really ever go to the Sanzu River one."

"Why not drop all the way down to the abyss?"

"A round-trip would need Wanyūdō or Katawaguruma, _danna_.1" Kogarashi chipped in. "Two thousand _ryō_. There's a package that comes with a tour of the Yellow Springs, an aerial tour of Kasoke-to, and passage by Enma Palace, all for ten thousand _ryō._ It's worth a castle, ya know!"

"That sounds... rather expensive," Asami lamely finished as I motioned desperately not to ask.

"Well, they do say that the judgements of Jigoku are influenced by money,2" Kogarashi commented. "But I heard from a friend of mine, B-san, who heard it from King Enma's Chief of Staff that there might be _reforms_. Ah, there's the Tokyo Tower!"

Asami glanced out, and then quickly looked away. "We must be doing triple digits." part of his fingers were digging into the wooden shutters.

I looked outside. Clouds passed us with blinding speed. Kogarashi was weaving across the sky in the _oboroguruma_ version of showing off, with them apparently none the wiser. Not only that, but I couldn't feel the motion at all within the passenger compartment. By all rights, we should have been bouncing off the windows and the roof, but it didn't feel as if our chariot wasn't moving at all.

Long story short: Kogarashi got us there in two hours, and gave Asami new grey hairs in the process.

"How do you miss a _forest_?!"

"You wanted to come along," I gave Asami a hurt look as we waited at the _nurikabe_ ticketing box. The cloak of energy pouring out of the Underworld was so fierce, Asami could see every _youkai_ about. He looked both composed and lost, which is the weirdest paradox I'd ever seen. "But his story was nice."

"Aren't _youkai_ the things that scare people? So why do they need their own ghost stories with living humans..."

"Yeah, that's funny."

"Akihito, do they know?"

"What?" I looked around.

Some people, stall-keepers and festival-goers alike, were staring, making motions about the eyes with whispered comments. My enhanced hearing came with the wilful change of my ears, and I winced. "I think... they think you're a _gitsune_. Fox spirit."

" _Oh_?"

"Gold eyes, you know." I looked down to my belt. "The first time... in that alley, I thought you were a fox, too. Then I realised you were human, but I thought you had fox blood or something."

An _oboroguruma_ crashed. My godmother toppled out of it, laughing as the haunted cart righted itself and wheeled off. "Oh, you waited!" She laughed, dropping two bags into our hands. "Your clothes... might stand out."

"No shit," I sighed. I'd worn modern clothes because I forgot that the Urabon was mainly the kind of festival where _yukata_ was everywhere, along with _haori_ and others. "Would you let us out like this?"

"Nonsense." She murmured a word, passed her hand over my head, and my clothes started writhing as if they'd been made out of a single, flat organism which hadn't died. I hit my head on the _nurikabe_ as I jumped in surprise.

A few seconds later, clenching my head, I eyed my godmother and said, "I don't need any help."

" _Akihito_." Asami was staring at me, whispering in a strangled voice.

I looked down and found myself garbed in a crimson _yukata_. My shirt and jeans had turned into the _yukata_ and a white undergarment tied with a black _obi_ , my sneakers and socks into _geta_ sandals, and a _kinchaku_ carry bag of yellow cloth with an embroidered black dragon emerging from the shell of a clam swung from my arm.

I stared at me. Then at Asami. Gold eyes, blown wide in soundless awe, met mine.

"...Incredible," he said. "You really do have a fairy godmother."

"Much as I dislike being classed like that, I've never been able to indulge," Godmother studied me absently, and then nodded. "Your turn, Asami-dono."

He took it much better than me. She put him in a _yukata_ of muted ink-black, with a white _obi_. A sleeveless dark blue _haori_ jacket was added to his ensemble, barely concealing the shoulder holster, with a stylised S made out in gold stitching shaped like an Oriental dragon curled around the lapels.

He took the whole thing with more grace than I did, even commenting: "You must have been a secretary at some point. I know people who would pay you your weight in gold."

"La, what is money," Godmother shrugged, conjuring a black walking cane with a gold dragon inlaid into the wood with mother-of-pearl. "I have worked as a secretary, yes, but that was in Belle Époque Paris. A long time already. But now I'm playing godmother to Cendrillon and Cinderella... or was it two princes? Such is life, which passes like a breeze. That is why there are things we must treasure, Asami-dono."

"Ah, I'm not infirm anymore," he tried to refuse the walking stick. Godmother twisted the head and pulled it to reveal a hidden blade – the entire cane was a _shikomizue,_ a Japanese sword-stick. "Oh, that's appropriate."

"Noon," she mouthed as he accepted it. It suited him, like some older gentleman from the Taishō era.

"You look like a _oyabun_ ," I commented as Asami got into the swing of things, checking the blade and scabbard. "Where's your wallet and phone?"

"You shouldn't keep electronics around," Godmother admonished. "You might bring Sadako-chan back again, and she's already serving a trillion-year extension of her original sentence. As for money, you can use _yen_ , but be prepared to get change back in _mon_ sometimes."

Asami pulled open his own bag to check, and also pulled at his sleeves after he'd switched off his phone. "Impressive."

Godmother's grin called to mind stormy weather again. "Come along, then. And, Aki."

"Yes?"

"Be very careful about what you're seeing."

What does that mean? I looked at Asami properly, and then I blushed at what she'd said and done now. Godmother's magic had given me the sight of Asami, clear as day while surrounded by the world of the night.

* * *

Usually, I don't feel so self-conscious at a festival. Walking with Asami in the Sanzu River Urabon, though, felt surprisingly... out of place. Especially since Asami kept trying not to stare around him, and failing with equal measure.

Haunted lanterns frowned and groaned from being suspended on ropes. A _tanuki_ walked around drunk, his giant ball sacs hanging over one shoulder. Some of the attenders had only one eye, or too many eyes, or no faces at all. With so many spirits in one place, the demonic aura was so strong that the entire setting, with its crimson borders of _higanbana_ and the sight of the various monsters and spirits of Japan wandering about, seemed like the Hyakki Yagyō again.

"I think Kogarashi mentioned that this is the largest summer festival of the Japanese _youkai_ world," Asami started, unable to tear his eyes away from the shooting booth. The gun _tsukumogami_ were already jeering and laughing as a little _tofu kozo_ tried and failed to get the grand prize.

"Uh, yeah." I thought about it. "From the point of view of the living world, Urabon is a salvation for the spirits of the dead. From our point of view, this is the summer vacation of the guards and wardens of Jigoku, which is why this is always a busy period."

"How surprising," Asami whispered quietly. "Hell complies to the Labour Standards Act. Wouldn't crime rates go up when the wardens are on break?"

"All those who attempt anything during this time would be immediately thrown into Avīci Hell and... something else, I think," my nose wrinkled as a stench of spices came floating from upwind. "We can't cross the Sanzu River, but upwind it looks like they're making _mapo-_ " I glanced back to see Asami glancing longingly at the shooting gallery.

What the hell?

I stomped over to it immediately.

"Ah, young man," the _oni_ manning the stall gave a huge grin as he motioned to the spread of gifts behind him, each covered by a thick wooden target. "Would you like to play our shooting game? Only 300 yen for three tries! Whatever you hit with the arrow, you get to keep as the prize!"

"This guy doesn't have the guts!" One of the three guns exclaimed through its muzzle. An _ofuda_ was stuck on its handle, meant to seal its power but left deliberately incomplete so as to be used as a toy. "Ne, Daikyō?"

"Obviously, Shōkyō," another gun hummed, its barrel wobbling as it spoke through the magic that animated it. "We were at the Battle of Anegawa!3"

"Oi, old man! I'm gonna shoot the grand prize! What?" I stopped smiling as I saw Asami smiling at me. "You wanna fight? Let's go!"

"How sad, we weapons are now reduced to this," Daikyō sighed as I laid down three hundred yen and took aim before firing. Then I fired his little brothers Suekyō and Shōkyō... all to no success.

"Oi!" I screeched as the three guns loaded themselves over Asami's chuckle. "You try then!"

Asami sauntered over, swinging his cane like some sort of dapper Japanese gentleman. The cane thunked against the stall table, and he also laid down three hundred yen before picking up Daikyō, tracing the long barrel and checking its sights, trigger, everything right down to the stylised five-petal emblem etched into the wooden butt protector.

"You're an authentic _tanegashima_ matchlock once owned by the Oda clan?" Asami asked it. "Daikyō, was it?"

"Oh, you got good taste, _danna_ ," Daikyō fairly preened as Asami took aim. "Bang!" As it spoke, the third prize fell over.

"Oh, good aim, _danna_!" the stall-owner oni commented. "That _nekochigura_ is made of straw gathered in Black Cord Hell!4 It's definitely comfy after being soaked in the Lake of Blood!"

I watched the cat-house gap and moan, animated by the spite of the deceased into a cursed cat-house. " _Damn you, you thug-_ "

I winced as Asami shot down a _kokeshi_ and the haunted cat-house with the same shot. "Do you have better prizes?"

"What, the young master doesn't like anything we offer?" Suekyō complained, having just spent his shot at Asami's directive.

Asami was now cradling Shōkyō like it was his first-born son or something. "These are fine guns. If I shoot a longer target, can I take one back?"

"What are you, a gun _otaku_?!" I complained. "Besides, that _ofuda_ is sealing back its demonic power for the moment."

"Ahaha, please don't joke, _danna_. If _danna_ likes..." the _oni_ turned around. "How 'bout a collaboration _empon_ between Kyōrinrin and Suzuri no Tamashii?"5

"Oh?" Trust Asami to pay attention to anything sex-related. "Let me see it."

"Aoi, go get the _Kekkonshikiten_!6"

Aoi turned out to be the spirit of a haunted blue _kimono_ , the _kosode no te_. The book it carried was a slim codex, but when opened, the inks jumped out of the page to begin showing the act of copulation between man and woman. It was like watching a hologram, or a projected video with way more depth than could be expressed on a screen. My face just felt hot from describing it.

"It's seriously worth its weight in gold," the _oni_ advised. "So if you're so confident in your aim, _danna_ , we'll have to move further back and you'll have to pay an extra 30,000 _yen_. It's the handiwork of two great spirits of knowledge, Kyōrinrin-sensei and Suzuri-sensei! This is _the_ best-seller guide for _youkai_ brides for their wedding night!"

"Oh?" Asami sounded amused. "What about... bridegrooms?"

The _oni_ simply smiled. Not to be defeated, he turned the codex upside down and then opened the book. Somehow, the book's change of orientation also resulted in the characters' change in gender and sexual orientation, which caused me to blush even more.

Damn, that Kyōrinrin-sensei really knew a lot, and the depictions brought to life by the powers of Suzuri-sensei were... well, informative and decorative. "Why didn't they make more?" I asked the _oni_.

"Ah, there's no call for handmade prints nowadays, boy," the _oni_ waved. "Humans and their technology replaced artistry. I tell you, come the next century we'll be seeing the rise of train _youkai_ and others. This is their _doujinshi_ , it sold damn well at last year's summer Under-Comiket."

"They have events like that too? What the hell kind of market is that?!" I shouted at him.

"Fifty thousand _yen_ ," Asami said, his eyes fixated on a particular position that made even the passing _youkai_ behind him blush and hurry away. "If I win, you give me that book and tell me where to find those two writers. Such an enlightening book deserves a second run."

* * *

"I can't believe you, bastard!" I complained. Asami had obviously won the book. He'd tried to get the _tanegashima_ guns tossed in as well, but the _oni_ vendor giving fond looks at the iron club under the stall table made me intervene. "Even if he thought you were a _myōbu_ , you might as well seem like a sheltered young master. Luckily he was part of Godmother's new clan."

The festival procession was walking north, the chill of night a constant shroud that gathered mists to cloak the procession in darkness. The monsters and spirits amassed were dancing their _Bon-odori_ in a mass of chaos, bodies and ethereal selves pressing and pushing in a churning mass of dark energy to haunting music. _Koto_ , _shamisen_ and _biwa_ – lots of _tsukumogami_ and their partners dominated the music scene here, right before the Manjushage Shrine.

"Akihito-kun!" Ran-chan ran towards me, skidding as she spotted that I wasn't alone. "You brought your friend?"

I'd turned around and opened my mouth, but then I saw Asami's expression. "Wha- who are you?"

"I'm a _rokurokubi_!" Ran-chan's head bobbed in the air, connected to her body only by a supernaturally extended neck. "Tōgen Ran, nice to meet you!"

"Asami Ryuichi." Asami gave a small bow.

"Are you with Kaigara-san's group as well?" Ran-chan chattered. "I haven't seen you at the group meetings."

"Group meetings."

"Yep. She holds them for we _youkai_ living amongst humans," Ran-chan obliviously continued despite my frantic hand signals. "It gets lonely when there's no one else who understands you, and Akihito-kun makes great food! Ah, I work as a singer-"

"That's enough." Kuchisake-san had also arrived, this time with a scarf to hide her face and a yukata of crimson with a yellow collar. "Ran-chan, let's go to the Manjushage Shrine."

"Yeah, let's go!" I desperately hollered, taking Asami's hand to drag him towards the vermilion _torii_.

Unlike the _higanbana_ blooming around the perimeter of the festival stalls, no crimson blooms surrounded the shrine yet. Somehow, I found myself drawn to the vermilion gates, so clear in my view, that I walked and kept walking, and behind me a stick tapped against stone and kept tapping. Up the left side we rose, to the tiny shrine whose façade was dominated by two doors, each depicting a stylised red spider lily with its leaves.

"A _higanbana_ with its leaves... how quaint," Asami whispered.

"This is the Manjushage Shrine," I heard myself answer as I walked towards the dangling rope. "A shrine for _youkai_."

Having run ahead of us, Ran-chan and Kuchisake-san prayed first. Then I pulled the bells, and clapped my hands to make a small prayer before dropping 500 yen into the offering box. I'd always contributed that much, every summer that I came here.

"Akihito-kun, Asami-san, we're going ahead first, alright?"

"Yes, Ran-chan. See you later." I distantly replied, too busy in contemplating this place.

This shrine, which remained hidden and unseen, next to the great entrance of the great prison of Jigoku, would be the only place where the flowers and leaves of the red spider lily could defy destiny to be together. It caught my attention, demanded respect, and contained the hopes of various _youkai_ who must have stopped here once upon a time.

"...ba. Takaba. _Akihito_."

I closed my eyes.

"'If the _higanbana_ symbolises the separation of two worlds, then this place is a shrine for those who hope otherwise'," I distantly recalled the words of wisdom that someone spoke to me. Silence had fallen – most likely in preparation for the sending-off fire that would conclude Urabon. "Someone said that to me once. Today I have seen the night with mortal eyes. All the details, all the dimness and shadows, and all the wonder within it."

There was a warm presence at my back. I turned around, and my nose bumped into the lining of his _yukata_. I smelt Dunhill cigarettes, gun oil, and steel. I drew in a sharp breath as a gold-topped cane with a dragon pushed my chin up, exposing my throat to the elements for that brief moment before he swooped down, crushing my lips between his cane and his lips.

Fireflies in the sky exploded under the summer stars. I broke the kiss, coughing as a taste of something hung around my mouth.

"Their offerings are plentiful," Asami commented. "The _sake_ flows well."

"Y- You-"

"Shh," Asami's wicked grin lit the night as he pulled my hand and led me towards the shrine and its hall of worship. "Come on."

"The hell, Asami?! The shrine's fucking closed, you can't just- is that the offering _sake_?" I screeched as he dragged me into the shrine and closed the doors.

"It's delicious." Asami smirked at me. "Here, drink it."

The _sakazuki_ cup he passed to me was filled to overflowing, until it took me three sips to down the thing. "What kind of idiot drinks _sake_ offered to the shrine?!"

"This is truly the best," Asami drank another share, and handed me another _sakazuki_. "Go on."

I glared at him, but drank despite my terrible tolerance. "What is the enshrined _kami_ comes back?! Stop pouring!"

He drank a third cup, and filled a third cup for me. "No point in wasting _sake_. Go on."

The hell? Not one to pass up the drink or waste it, I drank it in three sips. "Stop it, Asami!"

"Then come here, Akihito." His gold eyes still seemed so bright in the dimness of the shrine. His hands reached for my belt, and wrenched it around until the knot was at the front. "The clam's mouth knot, of course. Do you know what happens when you stack three _sakazuki_ on top of each other?"

I blinked, and then looked down to the _sakazuki_ cups. Now that I knew what to look form, they got progressively bigger at the bottom and smaller at the top. I'd drunk them from small to big, and each of them individually-

With Asami.

Using those... those...

I looked at the bottle. Yashiori Brewery. The _sake_ sponsored by Yamato no Orochi. "Asami... do you know what those cups are for? Do you know what you just did?!"

"I do," he nodded. He was smiling, as if he didn't care at all. The _youkai_ world had infected him with its devil-may-care attitude. No, not even _youkai_ would dare to do all the things this guy just did. "We broke into the shrine, stole its _sake_ , and then used a _san-san-kudo_ set to marry each other before the gods. Oh, and, there's one more sin left to do."

"There's still _more_?!" I don't think the gods of the Manjushage Shrine would mind, but... "There can't be anything worse than what we just did!"

"Of course there is," his hands were about to pull the knot. "The consummation."

...Of course.

I had the feeling that Asami would not rest until he managed to trap me completely within the palm of his hand. Even if it means excommunicating me from the otherworld.

But... I made my choice, didn't I?

"There's something you should know."

His hand stilled.

"I killed Yamazaki," I admitted.

"I know."

I stared at him. "Y- You do?"

"Four floors on fire, and him being tossed from a great height impossible from any building? It's your side of the world, I can guess," Asami reasoned, pulling the knot and unravelling my _obi_. "He betrayed you. He would have sold you out, and your world with you. This is the secret you have been taught to guard with your life."

I sat down, straddling his hips with his knees hitting my back. My hands looped around his neck as my _yukata_ fell open, leaving me bared. "If you do the same," I whispered, "I'll kill you myself."

"Threats, backed with your strength, are indeed credible. You might have bitten off more than you can chew. Now, what shall I punish you with? Perhaps I should stick a bottle here and let your lower half enjoy it?"

I shuddered as Asami's hand lifted up, and then my back hit the wooden panelling of the shrine's floor, Asami's _obi_ tying up my hands. The _haori_ had been knocked off in the struggle, and it lay on one side with the walking stick. Asami's _yukata_ really suited him, I thought. All dark planes and bright accents to better highlight the darkness. He looked even more like a _youkai_ , between the two of us.

Of course, so I told myself, if he were a real _youkai_ , he'd fail at blending in, and all the _onmyōji_ in Japan would find him and kill him. Some of them fought really dirty. It was for the best that I was the _youkai_ in the equation. Then, no one would ever suspect me and I could watch this guy's back.

He gave my ear a brutal yank with his teeth, the better to reach my throat and bite. "If you betray me, I'll track you down, even to Hell. Two thousand ryō round-trip."

I couldn't remember, because somewhere around the hour of evil spirits I must've had the fifth climax of the night. Godmother wasn't telling, because apparently the enshrined _kami_ of the Manjushage Shrine went to complain to her about the newly-weds consecrating the shrine, and beg for alternative accommodation.

You read that right. After all, Manju and Shage – both of them – were the patron deities of impossible couples. They wouldn't refuse people who desperately needed them.

* * *

 _ **Critiquez, s'il vous plaît !**_

 _ **A/N: In Japanese hanakotoba, the red spider lily (higanbana) means 'never to meet again/Lost memory/abandonment', as well as being a flower of death. When the flowers bloom, their leaves would have fallen; when the leaves grow, the flowers would have wilted. A famous legend involves**_ _ **two elves: Manju, who guarded the flower, and Saka, who guarded the leaves. Out of curiosity, they defied their fate managed to meet each other. At first sight, they fell in love with each other, but were separated by the gods. Therefore it was said that when the couple met after death, they vowed to meet each other after reincarnation. However, neither of them could keep their words. In commemoration of the couple, some call the herbs 'Manjusaka' instead of their scientific name. The same name is used in Japanese, in which it is pronounced Manjushage. The reason Asami pointed out the impossible nature of the shrine's motif is to highlight that this shrine symbolises the impossible prayer of youkai to stay with their human lovers forever. – LLS**_

 _ **1 Old Japanese pronoun, meaning 'master' or 'lord'.**_

 _ **2 'Jigoku no Sata mo Kane Shidai' (地獄 の沙汰も金次第) – one of a few East Asian sayings that refers to the power of money. The Chinese version is '有钱能使鬼推磨' – 'with money, one can make ghosts turn grindstones'.**_

 _ **3 The Sengoku period Battle of Anegawa (30 July 1570) occurred near Lake Biwa in Ōmi Province, Japan, between the allied forces of Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu, against the combined forces of the Azai and Asakura clans. It is often noted that Nobunaga used 500 arquebusiers in this battle, one of the first cases where firearms tactics became introduced to the Japanese battlefield in things like volleys.**_

 _ **4 Neko chigura (nekochigura) or Neko tsugura (nekotsugura) is a kind of cat house made of straw in Japan. Chigura or tsugura is written as "稚座" in Kanji, and means bassinet in the Niigata dialect where there is the custom to use rice straw baskets for babies. Niigata constitutes, in fact, a rice granary and the basket industry is a side business in the winter season when the prefecture becomes snowbound.**_

 _ **5 Kyōrinrin is a spirit of knowledge formed from ancient scrolls, books, and scriptures which have been gathering dust, unstudied by their owners. These tomes gather together, compelled by the wisdom of the ages, into a dragon-like spirit. Suzuri no Tamashii is an ink-stone which has been used to copy the same manuscript over and over again for many generations begins to take on aspects of the story itself. It can create phantom sounds and illusory characters from the story, which well up out of the ink and wreak havoc on the area around the writing desk.**_

 _ **6 A fictional book, whose title roughly translates as 'Sutra of the Wedding Ceremony'.**_


	19. 十八: Ominaeshi

_**Silvervine**_

 _ **An LLS Production**_

* * *

 **十八** **: Ominaeshi**

Having sex in a shrine is killer on the lower back.

With that in mind, despite the padding provided by a folded _haori_ , I spent a large part of the morning in bed.

What would it be like, I wonder. If I stayed here... well, maybe I could consider nine-hour days. Staving off the need to sleep extra hours was killer on my feline instincts, which demanded great activeness at the opening and closing of each day, but left me lethargic for every other hour I spent awake. Sugar helped, but I was probably gonna court diabetes despite my literally and metaphorically monstrous immune system.

"I'm _never_ going to drink again," I mewled. "Godmother, _kakkontō_ please..."1

My hangover continued even as I dragged myself to the kitchen to drink a glass of water, and then groaned as I pulled myself into human form and brought another glass to the bed.

The warm mountain in the bed groaned. "What was... that _sake_? It's like four times the strength of whiskey..."

"Yashiori Brewery is owned by the Izumo land gods Ashi-nazuchi and Te-nazuchi," I moaned back, passing it the glass. "What we drank was the same _sake_ used by Susanoo-no-Mikoto to kill the Yamato no Orochi."

"No wonder it's so fucking potent..." The mountain drank the entire glass and tossed it towards the bedside table. "It really feels like someone's attacking my head with the Totsuka no Tsurugi..."

"If only it would stop the pain," I slumped on top of the mountain and groaned. "I'm never gonna drink again... I'm gonna find a hangover cure."

The mountain shifted underneath me, and I plopped back onto soft bedding. "My cure is right here..."

I groaned as an ear-splitting ring nearly burst my eardrums. "Who... phone?"

"Don't answer that... I'll shoot it."

"Stop... my head hurts too much for this..." I fumbled around, grabbing the source of the noise and pressing the green button. "Who the hell are you?"

"... _Takaba?_ "

"Oh, Glasses." I yawned, handing the phone out to the mountain. "Ryuichi."

A hand grabbed the phone, and then the mountain yawned. "Kirishima? No, I'm alright, just hungover. Yes, we're in the penthouse. My liver is intact, if a bit pickled, Kyō Kaigara was very serious about that. Nothing happened, we just drank a bottle of the Yashiori _sake_. Yes, the one that killed a dragon. I'm not going to come in to work today."

Then he hung up, and I winced as the phone was tossed to one side as well. If I can see the ceiling, that means that it's daylight, right?

I rolled, dropping with a thump with my face to the floor. The coolness relieved some of the headache, and from there I dragged myself into the shower. I stood with my head in the rain of water, groaning as my headache steamed with the rush of cool water. The water shifted to warm, and another presence pressed up from behind.

"I thought cats hate to get their heads soaked in water?"

"Head hurts," I moaned. "Don't care." I blinked aside a few droplets that spattered over my naked body, and then looked at Asami. "Aren't you?"

"I am. I've got more practice than you, _brat_."

"If I'm a brat, you're a baby," I yawned. "I definitely must have lived longer than you as a cat to take human form."

"As a human, though, you're still in elementary school."

"I graduated elementary school!" I groaned again as he blocked the water. "Oi!"

Well... I brushed my teeth beforehand.

* * *

Anyway, I got out of the bathroom and went to get breakfast. Nothing too heavy – _ochazuke_ made from leftovers. I put in rice, some of the _matatabi miso_ , sesame seeds, leftover grilled mackerel, and _mitsuba_ parsley. I put _genmaicha_ to steep in a pot.

I'd barely set two places and started eating when the other place got occupied.

" _Itadakimasu_." We both dug in.

Silence might reign aside from the sounds of two men wholly focused on breaking fast, but it was homely. It's like... you don't need to say a lot of things.

"Delicious..."

My ears pricked up. Surely... no, it couldn't be.

" _Matatabi miso_ , was it?"

"Uh," I grunted into my bowl, sipping the tea to taste my personal vice. " _Matatabi_ has health benefits in _kampo_ too, you know. Good for your cholesterol, liver, kidney, circulation... The leaves has vitamin C and vitamin E too, and it can combat lung inflammation. That's why it has a reviving effect, and that's where you get the phrase: 'Old, weary travellers come back to life when they eat the fruit of silvervine, and then continue their journey'."

"You don't strike me as the type to study _kampo_."

"I only know two _kampo_ recipes. One is _matatabi_ with anything. The other is _kakkontō_." I laughed. "Godmother's the real expert in our clan. I think she can give the Yakushi Sect a run for their money. 'Course, the number of times she got soused might have something to do with that."

I flinched as the _matatabi_ was starting to take effect. "Old ladies know their stuff, Asami. Just telling you."

Licking the edge of his bowl, Asami's gold eyes lingered on me. "You called me something else when you woke up."

"What...?" I squinted at him.

"Call me by my first name, Akihito."

There's nothing wrong with using my first name, but this guy's first name...? "R- R- Ryū-"

I blushed. Come on, me! It's just a name! There's no way Godmother would accidentally teach you _kotodama_ or something!2

Well...

"By the way, how'd you convince my godmother?" I changed the subject. "What did you do this time?"

Asami looked at the bowl in his hands. "Up until the truce we called yesterday, she tried to kill Feilong, Arbatov and me."

"Hah?!" I exclaimed. "Godmother's really done it this time...!"

"Silenced drive-by shooting. Hiring local killers." Asami began to list all the reasons for him to hate my godmother. "Fire-bombing the Fixer in the dead of night – don't worry, we put out the fire, nobody died, and we found the electrician who was... well, ' _he fought like a man possessed_ ' seems like an accurate descriptor. You intercepted the poisoning and the... the woman with the conical hat."

"Why would anyone launch multiple failed assassination attempts instead of hiring one very skilled assassin?" I asked.

His gold eyes bored into my soul as he considered the question. "While these individual attempts don't have a particularly high success rate, they also expose her to barely any risk and take little effort. Sooner or later, the odds will turn against me."

My hands were shaking as I reached out to touch his shoulder. If Godmother stopped only when I was around... "Was that... the reason why, at the shrine...?"

"No!" Asami's bark made me jump. "The main reason for the mangled _omiai_ yesterday-"

" _Omiai_?! That was an _omiai_?! She tried to burn you to death! A- And- it was a shared custody arrangement!"

"-was partly to gain her measure, but then I realised that I wanted to bind you to me far more than I wanted to kill that bitch!" Asami interrupted, his gold eyes blazing.

"It started... wrongly, I'll admit that," he continued, in a calmer voice. "It took four days and four nights of negotiations to wear her down enough to even agree to the _omiai_ , when you were in Adachi or Aomori or wherever, in a place I could not follow, having the time of your long life. Last night, the night you came to me, I knew what I wanted at last. That's when it became less of a negotiation, and more of a request for her... blessing."

I tried to follow the whole thing, my mind reeling with the fact that, you know, Godmother tried to kill the most powerful crime lords this side of Asia for some reason, and the one I was sleeping with didn't even tell me. That revenge was mine and Godmother had disregarded it- that made me so angry I could barely think over the hissing I was making at nothing in particular, but my face felt hot and my heart kept speeding at the thought.

Except...

I frowned. Asami said that she was trying to kill Feilong and Mikhail. While that would explain why that blond Russian had forcibly moved into Feilong's house if they had an alliance, there was no reason for my godmother to go after them. If it wasn't Asami, Feilong and Mikhail vs. Godmother, then... are they being targeted for different reasons? What do all three of them have in common... besides the obvious?

What would drive Godmother to call in hits on _them_?

"...dammit," I swore aloud. Maturity of thought is not my strong point. "Why is she doing this?"

Asami blinked slowly. "...I find myself mildly clueless about why mortal women do what they do. It would take a wiser man than me to understand what's in a _youkai_ woman's mind. You don't realise it yet, but your godmother is the worst opponent for people like me. She has no human identity I can locate, no place to isolate, no way to check her background. She has all the time in the world. She improvises her plans on the fly."

I tapped my finger against my forehead. "I've got nothing going on in here at the moment."

I realised what I had said just as the last word left my mouth, and glanced at Asami.

His mouth was turned up in a small smile. "Too easy. But no, she started only after your return from Bali and our... less than ideal meeting with a burning bed."

I thought about it some more. If it wasn't me, it was probably the _Flying Dragon_. However, capsizing the thing would already be enough punishment from the _youkai_ point of view, which left me racking my brains for a reason why my godmother would break the laws of _youkai_ to pre-empt my revenge. "When did you start investigating Kai-no-Kuchi?"

"After... you came back from Bali," Asami's face fell. "It's... nothing personal. Just business."

Now it was clear. "You're putting my identity, as well as those of several others, at risk," I explained. "I don't know how Feilong and Mikhail crossed Godmother, but theirs were possibly involved with the fact that I got kidnapped by them. Asami, your case is just... well, business."

There's also the fact that it's kind of an embarrassment that none of the humans died, but Asami likely already knew or guessed that. Godmother could care less about business in the human world – she'd made and broken several fortunes from nothing through the turbulence of time. No, her concern here was the protection of those who came to her for an identity.

Even if I was concerned for Asami's safety, even if I cared an ounce at all, I had to admit on hindsight _now_ that Godmother's priorities were straight.

Back then I was angry, though.

"So... how'd you get her off your case last night?" I asked. "More like, how'd you _survive_? I know Godmother. She'd rather toss storms at you than forgive you."

I already knew the answer.

We were together.

All. Night.

"Are you jealous?" Asami sighed. He made it seem perfunctory rather than regretful, which meant that he wasn't sorry at all. "I sincerely wanted to marry you, and I did. That at least staved off the inevitable battle of the in-laws."

"What you want is to control me, you controlling freak." I struggled as his hand looped through the strap of my camera bag and pulled me towards him. "Let go!"

"Well, that's a prospect," he grinned at me. "But you just ate _matatabi_ , so I won't let you go out like that with your eyes blown wide. People might get ideas."

He resolved them.

Thoroughly.

Bastard, raising my hopes one moment and then killing them, what am I supposed to think?!

* * *

Living with Asami tended to be easy, because he's not at home most of the time, and when he does come back it's when I'm outside. That's why a couple of days after the end of Obon, I was in the kitchen, preparing a _bento_ to bring out with me on investigating another lead on a different case. My phone rang.

"Takaba, speaking."

" _Akihito-kun?_ "

"Ah, Ai-chan. What's up?" I checked my cellphone clock – yep, eleven AM.

" _Yes. The thing is, it looks like someone trashed my room. I would bunk in with Kuchisake-san and her friends, but there's not enough space at the moment. And... whoever trashed the place left a name..._ "

"Eh? Who?"

" _...Onoda._ " Ai-chan sniffed. " _It looks like he became an_ onryō _. Akihito-kun... I've never seen Kuchisake-san so angry. What should I do- AAHHH!_ "

"Ai-chan!" I shouted into the phone. "What happened?"

" _A- A flowerpot nearly hit me!_ " Ai-chan whispered back. " _I felt_ it _... I felt such hatred... I've called Kyō-san, but she's not answering! What should I do?_ "

"Ah..." I thought deeply. "Where are you now? Is Kuchisake-san with you?"

" _Ah, yes, she's with me. We're in Akihabara._ "

"Akihabara... run to the nearest shrine and hide there first," I advised. "The local land god might be able to give some shelter. I'll come over immediately."

" _Alright! We'll go to the Kanda Shrine and wait there!_ "

Then she hung up.

Asami was still slowly savouring his breakfast, which I'd consider so unfair if I didn't know his daily schedule of working late into next morning.

"What's this about a land god?"

"Basically, the god of the local shrine," I sighed. "You met Ai-chan at the Sanzu River Urabon, right? Well, she was Ran-chan then, but you know."

"Momohara, yes." Asami glanced at his breakfast – salmon fillet, rice, miso soup. "I presume her stage name is Ai, then?"

"Not gonna admit anything," I advised warily. "Well, you know how you and I were pursuing Onoda, and then I won, but I gave you the gun back?"

Asami frowned. "You're going to pick up some firearms training the next chance I get."

"Right... maybe during Hell's government shut-down." Which would be a _long_ day in coming. When you can work through the invasion of Son Goku, you can do any damn thing. "So, erm, we kinda of hunted down Onoda, and as payment... I... kinda had to let Kuchisake-san at him."

Asami stared at me. "Why?"

"She's a better tracker than me."

" _Really_?"

"She's the Kuchisake-Onna," I crossed my arms. "Are you gonna listen or not?"

"I'm listening." Asami nodded. "That's the urban legend with the Glasgow smile, right? She was wearing a scarf that night at Urabon. Exactly how fast and strong is she, to take on an armed man?"

"That's..." I frowned, trying to figure out how to explain the unique skills and traits of particular monsters as I packed my lunch. "Both points are irrelevant. The unique traits of the Kuchisake-Onna legend goes like this: First, she will always appear in front of her target, so escape is futile. Second, if her target refuses to answer her, she will slice him in half with her scissors. These traits are activated by the asking of the question 'am I beautiful?'. So, as long as she fulfils the condition of asking the question to her target, the Kuchisake-Onna will always be able to perfectly hunt down the target."

Asami acknowledged my explanation. "You don't have unique traits as a _bakeneko_ , Akihito."

"I'm a cat that speaks human language and can transform, that's unique enough!" I shot back. "Anyway, Kuchisake-san killed Onoda as the... price for her helping me to locate him. She disposed of the body, but he came back as a vengeful ghost."

It kind of says something that Asami simply sipped his soup. "I see. However, it doesn't seem like you'll be able to get a scoop from it."

"Ai-chan's my friend. And... I started this mess to start with," I sighed. "Scoop or no scoop, I'll see it to the end. Worst-case, I'll ask Ai-chan to autograph something to hawk online."

"Speaking of hawking..." The soup bowl was set down gently. "I'm facing a dilemma."

"No way, you also have dilemmas?!"

"They say that you can separate with a pretty wife, but not one that cooks well."

I rubbed my temple as I checked the fridge. "Then wouldn't Kirishima-san be better?"

Kirishima-san was, surprisingly, like some sort of cooking god reincarnated. He could whip up a five course meal from condiments and chewing gum.

Asami...

Asami once burned an egg.

A boiled egg.

I don't know _how_ he survived, much less get such a sexy body. Said sexy bastard smirked back at me. "He takes everything too seriously."

Why is the bastard taking things seriously?! I wrapped up the _bento,_ and packed up leftovers in the fridge with their pre-written instruction notes. It left my back to his face, so he couldn't see exactly how I felt.

"Ai-chan and Kuchisake-san probably found a shrine to hide in already, so I'll just go help with the _onryō_ problem on the way. There's another _bento_ for you if you ever get around to eating lunch. Godmother might be dropping off some late summer vegetables today, I've told the concierge. Please do _not_ set fire to anything she delivers, the _jatai_ was an exception.3 Any dinner preferences?"

"You."

"Cats have lousy meat! -.-*" I shouted as I ran out, lunch-box in hand.

I managed to escape on time to meet the girls at the Kanda Shrine in the Chiyoda ward of Tokyo. There was not much hurry – the shrine's current concrete structure had survived the fire-bombing of Tokyo in World War 2. It would survive a vengeful spirit Besides, anyone who fathered Takiyasha-hime could probably take on a measly spirit.4

Ai-chan and Kuchisake-san were waiting under the two-storey cypress main gate which marked the entrance to the Kanda Shrine. It was built with a roof like a Chinese pagoda. It was also weirdly deserted for one of the iconic spots near Akihabara, but I peered up, and the spirit haunting of the roof was probably the cause of that.

Ai-chan waved to me, "Akihito-kun!"

"Ai-chan!" I jogged up to them, and as I approached a wave of tiles nearly brained me. I'd be in the hospital if not for supernatural speed.

"Ah... busy night?" Ai-chan blushed. "You have- on your neck."

"Geh!" I groaned as Ai-chan lent me her mirror compact to look at my neck. "Stupid Asami!"

"Oh, that's the older gentleman from last night, right?" Ai-chan blushed. "He's your boyfriend, Akihito-kun~?"

"..." I looked up, trying to think unsexy thoughts and totally not about Asami the mountain bear hungover from really strong _sake_. When I got back to rational thoughts, Ai-chan was still gossiping with Kuchisake-san about boyfriends and good men being gay or taken, or both-

"Enough about my love life!" I complained. "Onoda came back as a vengeful spirit? Kuchisake-san, didn't your _kasha_ buddy burn him?"

"Looks like he got enough spite," Kuchisake-san's tone was light. "Or he has an _itako_ heritage. Could be any number of things."

"We could go-" I stopped talking, and smacked myself. If two _youkai_ like myself were hanging around _outside_ the shrine rather than _inside_ , obviously we couldn't go in. "Ah, anyone got an _ofuda_?"

I received two blank looks.

"Ah... if I tried, I think... I can get an _ofuda_ for protection against evil," Ai-chan flinched at the direction of the shrine. "I haven't eaten anything more than lamp oil!"

"Great, that's... great," I tried not to look at the shrine behind the gate as Ai-chan ran in, trying not to flinch.

While there was no difference between the _youkai_ and the _kami_ in a technical sense, the strong positive energies of such places were a headache. They were also dangerous to _youkai_. They also got more terrible with age; ancient shrines were powerful enough to outright incapacitate even the strongest of _youkai_ , if not kill them. Places like the Manjushage Shrine, or shrines allied with _youkai_ clans, were safe to enter and receive _ofuda_ and _omamori_.

The Kanda Shrine, despite being one of the shrines to bless technology due to its proximity to Akihabara, was not a place friendly to _youkai_. Kuchisake-san, as a murdering _youkai_ , couldn't step in. I could try, but the shrine would kill me first if my nature came into conflict with the shrine's metaphysical barrier. Ai-chan would fare better than either of us, since she was still semi-human.

"If it makes a loud enough ruckus, Gozu and Mezu would come and take it down,5" I noted. "It's not like Onoda can die again."

"We can't do that," Kuchisake-san automatically decided, climbing the gates by some form of parkour involving jumping against the pillars. "I'm not giving this guy a chance to return at Obon. We need to render him deader than dead!"

I sighed. Kuchisake-san's bloodthirsty nature might have gotten us into this mess in the first place, but frankly the outcome would probably have been the same no matter who killed him first. That was the least enviable part of being a _youkai_ – all your sins comes back to haunt you in some form, even if nobody in the _youkai_ world cares.

Least of all yourself.

I gave my camera bag to Ai-chan, and then joined Kuchisake-san in climbing the cypress gate up to meet Onoda. Contrary to most depictions of _onryō_ , Onoda was still kitted out in the dark jacket, pants and shoes he wore when Kuchisake-san chopped him in half.

"Ai... My Ai..."

This was not Onoda, I told myself. Onoda's body was either in the Dragon King's Palace, or dismembered, or gone. The identity of Onoda Mitsugu would rest as a missing persons case. Nobody aside from the three of us and the earth and the heavens, would ever know that Onoda Mitsugu was the stalker behind the Momohara Ai case.

If I'd gone at it alone... if I'd stuck to mortal methods... maybe Onoda wouldn't have faced such a grievous death. If I hadn't given in to my instincts to win...

Oh, wait, he would. He wouldn't even know why, probably. The human underworld was sometimes crueller than even us demons of the night. So, while it didn't sit well with me to kill Onoda again, that was the only option that was going to occur at this point.

I told myself all of this as I changed to cat form and scaled the gates.

"Can't get in!" the ghost howled as he thrashed against the barrier of the shrine's gate. He was suitably distracted, which allowed Kuchisake-san to sneak up behind him and strike a glancing slice at the back of his neck. Groaning as Kuchisake-san's scissors somehow cut through his spirit, Onoda reared back, wary and cautious, his neck out.

I dived, mouth opened to clamp down on his... well, his neck. A neck bite dealt with two long canine teeth to sever the spinal cord would mean death to a lot of things, but the ghost of Onoda needed a bit more work.

Onoda dropped from my jaws as I thought.

"What are you doing?!" Kuchisake-san hissed. "He needs to go."

Onoda's eyes remained wide as he melted away. "You did it," he cackled. "I'll tell King Yama. You and your black market leader did it. That was him, right, in the car with _you,_ you monster."

"No!" Kuchisake-san's scissors missed him as the ghost melted away. She turned onto me, and I let her punch me in the face.

In the distance, Ai-chan ran from the vermilion shrine building of the Kanda Shrine, the _ofuda_ and _omamori_ dangling from her hands. "I got them! I got them! I got them...!"

* * *

 _ **Critiquez, s'il vous plaît !**_

 _ **1 Kakkontō is an herbal drink with its origin in traditional Chinese medicine. It is made from a mixture of ginger, cinnamon, Chinese peony, licorice, jujube, ephedra, and powder ground from the root of the kudzu plant. The resulting tea is used as a home remedy for fevers, headaches and hangovers.**_

 _ **2 Kotodama (lit. "word spirit/soul") refers to the Japanese belief that mystical powers dwell in words and names. English translations include "soul of language", "spirit of language", "power of language". The notion of kotodama presupposes that sounds can magically affect objects, and that ritual word usages can influence our environment, body, mind, and soul.**_

 _ **3 The jatai is a kimono sash which becomes animated and slithers around like a giant snake during the night. This snake obi hunts after men, strangling them in their sleep.**_

 _ **4 Takiyasha-hime is the daughter of Taira no Masakado, and a sorceress who raised an army of youkai and attempted to conquer Japan.**_

 _ **5 Ox-Head and Horse-Face are two guardians or types of guardians of the Underworld in Chinese mythology. In Japanese mythology, Ox-Head and Horse-Face are known as "Gozu" and "Mezu" respectively.**_


	20. 十九: Aoni

_**Silvervine**_

 _ **An LLS Production**_

* * *

 **十九** **: Aoni**

I'd stated before that my godmother's power as dominion over her domain. Which was why most of her meetings was held in her domain, under whatever decoration and purpose that she decided on this time.

This time, it was a large operating theatre, the kind with a tiled floor and drains for easy cleaning. An operating table dominated the centre of the room, complete with trolleys of scalpels and other equipment with sharp and pointy bits, along with a few stone jars. On the operating table laid Onoda's body...

...which totally explained why Onoda's spirit was still hanging around.

"Kuchisake-san," I said, trying to keep my voice level. "What is this?"

"Body disposal class," Kuchisake-san replied. "Kyō-san asked for a dummy. We're going to make sure that the dummy is destroyed."

Oh. This was a voluntary class – Body Disposal 101 For Yōkai. Held by a kind volunteer that was my godmother.

"Today we'll be discussing body disposal," Godmother started without preamble once everyone was present and accounted for. "None of you would ever be expected to kill anybody, but it seems like a good option."

A murmur rose up in the crowd, except for us three.

"We're _monsters_ ," Godmother gave an arch reminder. "Even humans face this. When you take away the horror, tragedy, moral and ethical considerations, you're still left with a fifty-kilo problem. Humans, they just chop us up and they're charged with animal killing or something. Us, we've got other considerations. So, this translates directly to 'what to do if you're discovered and can't get away for plausible deniability'."

She put her hands on her hips. "Usually, if you're spotted, people won't believe you. You see, humans have the tendency to rationalise what they see, and forget what they can't. None of you, I trust, are dumb enough to actually _talk_ to your accidental discoverer."

Her eyes fell on me. What? What?!

"So, your first step in our KISS programme is to keep calm," Godmother continued her calm explanation of the best steps when being discovered. "Some of you have the option of erasing the human's memory. Assuming you don't... there are many humans nowadays. You can set it up as a mugging."

She cracked her knuckles, pulling a yellow _ofuda_ and a mug of water from it A single absent breath set the paper on fire, the ashes dropping into the mug.

"The most difficult step is body disposal. After all, human bodies do weigh heavily." Godmother continued. "In our world, there is the additional difficulty that the person you just killed could come back to haunt you... even if you're the things which haunt humans. If they have the potential to become _yūrei_ or _onryō_ , then they're a different step altogether in that body disposal becomes ritualised and necessary."

Godmother then poured the mug over Onoda's face.

There was a howl out of nowhere, and a gasp. The space around us trembled; the very walls themselves thrashed and shuddered, as a vengeful spirit tried and failed to breach her demesne.

"Do not try this at home, of course," Godmother added over the babble. "This mixture of water from a shrine's well and a blessed _ofuda_ , while guaranteed to separate the spirit from the corpse and leave the soul to scatter, will attract attention from the deceased. Few of us can scatter the spirit reliably; _gitsune_ can do it, and so can the _kasha_ and perhaps the _nekomata_. Assuming that this danger is crossed, there is another. For those who can't, you're left with an open _katashiro_ that could be taken over at any moment."

Putting the mug back, Godmother then pulled a stack of laminated pictures in her left hand, and a needle and thread in the other.

"To prevent the corpse from being possessed is often neglected," Godmother's lecture continued. "The phenomenon of the _gashadokuro_ is less prominent nowadays because of the lack of wars, but there are still enough of them running around that it's really best not to attract attention. By the way, does anyone know the reason why you never see _gashadokuro_ in hospitals?"

A hand from a _tofu kozo_ went up. "Is it because of all the humans there?"

"No. It's because hospitals are often very brightly lit with their own generators," was the prompt answer. "For us _yōkai_ who live much closer to darkness and nature, LED isn't good. It's also for that reason that a lot of old spirits are moving to Tengoku and Jigoku... and so they're pushing up real estate prices... the old mode of thinking that the darkness contains spirits remains an important human instinct for this reason. Back to dealing with the body. You can sew up its lips and eyes, for a start. Chopping up the corpse also works, as does dissolving it – for the latter, use a base that can disrupt peptide bonds, _not_ battery acid. If you're in a hurry, burning works too."

The tremors slowly stopped as Godmother breathed fire and Onoda's body was wreathed in flames.

"Then toss the remnants into a river, or a lake, or the sea after conducting a purifying ritual of choice," Godmother listed as the body crackled merrily with a stink of burning flesh. "The escaped spirit is left to the wardens of Jigoku after that. In summary, the best way to go about things is to break down the physical body, and then hope that the person you just killed doesn't come back."

I could see everyone's faces; unhappy, sickened, but recognising the possibility that yes, we had to do this. This was the world I lived in.

Beside me, Ai-chan... no, Ran-chan shuddered, but her face remained resolute. Her hands clung onto a clutch purse and her cellphone, from which hung the _omamori_ from the Kanda Shrine as she stared at the burning body. "He's... gone."

"He is." I agreed morosely. "It's... necessary."

She looked at me as I slumped against the wall under the stark lighting of the theatre.

"I think," she slowly spoke, "that while it was for my safety, Akihito-kun cared for that man as well. Even though he is not a _yōkai_ , he was a sentient being to you, Akihito-kun. That's Akihito-kun's good point."

"Ai-chan- no, Ran-chan," I smiled back. "Thanks..."

Godmother continued chatting some more, and finally, when Onoda Mitsugu had been reduced to charred bones, she unceremoniously tossed the remains into a barrel with _ofuda_ decorating it.

"Before we're done, there's a final announcement," she added. "The Enma Palace is recruiting part-time dancers for their newest commercial jingle, aimed at the deceased in King Enma's Court Jigoku. The motto is 'Your Verdict in Hell Depends on You'1. Those who are interested can take this flyer and contact Chief of Staff Hōzuki at the Enma Palace. You won't get paid, but you'll get a free tour of the first three levels: Tōkatsu, Kokujō, rounding off at Shugō Hell's red-light district.2"

"..." Ran-chan gave me a puzzled expression. "Akihito-kun... why does it feel like Kyō-san is running a community club? Isn't this travelling to another world?"

"Ah, to _yōkai_ , travelling to another world _is_ a holiday, I guess..." I giggled out of fear. "But, Godmother's abuse hasn't actually sent off Onoda yet..."

* * *

I found myself drinking in Asami's apartment. As a cat, alcohol is still toxic to me, so I stuck to the _matatabi sake_. Since it had practically no alcohol, the only effect was that it left me tipsy and drunk.

The door opened. The door closed. More footsteps echoed.

"Welcome back." I closed my eyes, resting them against my knees as I curled up on his couch.

"What happened with Momohara?"

"The _onryō_ escaped," I mumbled. "We had to destroy the body, but Kuchisake-san gave it to Godmother to teach body disposal. When I left, Godmother was talking to old man Nekomata about organising a tour to Jigoku."

"Was it bad?"

"It's... irritating," I sighed. "And then I hate myself for saying that, because life is important to all things. But you know, the attitude is different in the human world. Just thinking like this, I feel like a failure as a _yōkai_ , especially since I- I made sure he died."

I don't know what I was doing, confessing my involvement in a crime to someone who wanted to control my life.

Asami hummed. "...is this why you... binge-cooked?"

"I made too much at Ai-chan's place," I sighed. "Ai-chan moved in with Kuchisake-san, Hanako-san and Kashima-san. We made too much, that's why I brought back leftovers."

"You shouldn't eat more meat than vegetables."

"I'm a cat. Cats are obligate carnivores." I curled in on myself.

"Ah, right," Asami agreed. "You're allergic to anything related to onions, tomatoes, gingers... so why'd you cook them?"

"They're for you, dumbass." I curled in on myself. "Just because I can't eat them doesn't mean you can't eat them. Humans need to eat onions to remain healthy, right?"

"How thoughtful of you." There was a rustle of plastic and metal.

"A number of garlic and onion dishes..." A beat of silence. "Is there a vampire problem?"

"No!" I groaned, grabbing a cushion to wrap and transform to lie down on. "I thought the demon capital of the Far East was supposed to be Shanghai! How'd you get to that conclusion!"3

"Because, Akihito, you have a surprising tendency to not pay attention to yourself in a fit to help others," I screeched as he moved the cushion I was lying down on, but Asami put both cushion and me on his lap, until my face poked into his clothed stomach.

"Of course, you have the benefit of experience and knowledge," Asami continued as he started to scratch behind my ears, arousing a purr from me. "But that does not mean that you're mentally equipped to deal with this, right? Cats hunt because of necessity, to sharpen their skills, to relieve their boredom... but I doubt they methodically plan out and kill. Nature is, at it basest, lacking of good and evil. You weren't actively malicious, were you? You just shelved aside human notions until the person threatening your friend was dead."

He leant down. "Change back, Akihito."

"This is the body I was born with."

Asami stopped scratching, which got a mewl. "I've slept with both men and women. I'll really consider sleeping with a cat at this rate."

"Y- You sicko!" I tore away from his hands and hid under the couch by virtue of being able to compress my skeleton. "Pervert! Die!"

"Akihito," he snapped, "get out from under there."

"No!"

"You're only supposed to be under me."

"You're sitting on the couch?"

"Yes...?"

"So it's not wrong."

I ran as the couch lifted, making a dead sprint for the kitchen. I think I heard a thump, but I was half-drunk. Who cares if Asami upended his own damn couch! Anyway, I could hear his footsteps behind me, so I doubled back and slid between his legs to get to the living room. I leapt, scrabbling on the couch for purchase, and made a flying leap to transform in mid-air at the entrance hall, diving for the door.

Freedom...!

Freedom was so close, before a flying truck hit me in mid-air and I crashed against the far wall. No, wait – trucks were much softer.

"Fine, I get it!" I yowled as I transformed.

The magic of human transformation was progressive, so mine was incomplete, since I couldn't master eating some human foods yet. It seemed good enough for Asami, though, because he started necking me. I bit his nose back in revenge, but it didn't take because he just smiled and licked my face.

"I'll let you bite other places too," he chuckled, palming my ass before he dragged me to toss onto his bed.

"...and, not that I'm saying I want you around more or anything," I started when all the matatabi had been worked out of my system. "You didn't tell me you were coming home early today, so I was prepared to put all that food into the fridge. And I'm not waiting for you anymore. I'm getting fat eating dinner so late at night. And, why do I have to-"

He gave a snort.

"Fine, be that way," I groaned. "I'm not your damn housewife."

I was lost in a haze of drunkenness, but now I realised the thoughts that haunted and motivated many _obake_ to seek to become human.

For young _yōkai_ out there, the most terrifying thought in any relationship is: _does he love me for what I am, or does he only love my face?_ It's terrifying. It's totally insecure to say so,

...it's kind of depressing that I'm thinking about this in a homosexual relationship. I mean, it's a temporary custody arrangement. When it cools off, we'll just have the _yōkai_ equivalent of a divorce.

It really doesn't matter if I'm here or not. This is just how Asami lives, and just how a cat should live – wandering from place... to place.

I'll enjoy this for now, I told myself. It's still September. Godmother's announcement for that trip to Jigoku was at the end of the year. I got until the end of the year to decide if I really want to break this off and then go lie low in the literal capital of demons in Hell.

Honestly, he's so annoying.

* * *

I looked at the terrible photograph. It showed Club Sion's back door burning at night. The current back door was charred beyond recognition, but it was the figure at the centre of the photograph that was probably Kirishima's concern, which was why, three days after watching Onoda get cut up, I had to see him again in a ghost photograph.

"Onoda Mitsugu is dead, isn't he?" Asami sat behind his awfully large desk, chain-smoking. That's usually a sign that he's really pissed off.

"Uh huh..." I squinted at it. "Just because I have human vision doesn't mean I can reliably identify him, you know. And he just saw you once, with me. _Onryō_ are supposed to stalk the people they're obsessed with. That would be Ai-chan, but she's got _ofuda_ and _omamori_ from the Kanda Shrine."

"Go back to the bit where a pop idol's stalker turned haunter set my club on fire," Asami cut in. "You sure it's not your godmother?"

"Last I checked, at midnight Ryōta Neko put her at a drinking party in _Bakenekoya_ in Ukiyoe district," I pointed out. "Not even my godmother would be able to fly across Tokyo, set fire, and fly back to drink with iron-livered demons within five minutes."

"She can change faces, right?"

"It's... you know how she change faces, but you can still recognise her?" I waved to my body. "It's her aura. Godmother's demonic aura is very prominent though her faces are extremely perfect. That's how she advertises her face-painting skills."

"Face-painting skills," Asami echoed.

"Erm..." I closed my eyes, trying to recall. "Human transformation magic works in two ways. If you're me, you use your skin as a base in order to transform. That's slower to master, but more permanent because your insides also transform with you, so there's less chance of being found out. In Godmother's case, she's following the _gabi_ tradition. She draws the disguise on a malleable medium, and transposes the design on her own face. Of course, without energy to animate the face it falls apart, and if you're using human skin as a the transposition surface, you have to eat human hearts to maintain that skin."

" _Huàpí_ ," Asami muttered the Chinese name for it. "Pu Songling."

"That chap. Godmother has a book written personally by him." I nodded frantically, before I scowled at the photograph. "What happened to the guy who took the photo? He's terrible."

"Sasaki's babbling about his grandfather being right," Asami dropped one burnt-out cigarette butt into the ashtray on his desk. "Apparently the old man was a student under Inoue Enryō.4"

"Great. Amateur folklorist."

I once heard that Toriyama Sekien was sponsored by Nurarihyon-sama himself. They were useful in reminding humans about us, but also a pain to handle because that meant telling people about the supernatural. Yet, _yōkai_ were creatures meant to exist at the boundaries of liminality; just beyond human reach. That also meant that, if we were forgotten, then we lose a distinct form.

In a way, we needed humans to survive; fear and belief were two sides of the same coin. The only difference between _kami_ and _yōkai_ , in the end, was who was being prayed to.

Our Western siblings, the fae, managed to save themselves from being forgotten with the G-men – Gutenberg and the Grimms. Their former godly status, reduced to winged creatures and tiny imps. We _yōkai_ also lost some things in the transition to live amongst humankind, like now. What would have commanded a shrine to be built and multiple prayers was now another problem to be swept away.

The _onryō_ and its private vengeance was now pulling in big business in its warpath... big business in the name of Asami Ryuichi.

"The ghost is pulling in me now," Asami said. "It's my problem too now, Akihito."

It was now a really large problem, and nobody could roll back.

* * *

 _ **Critiquez, s'il vous plaît !**_

 _ **1 In Japanese: 地獄の沙汰も君次第. This is also the opening theme of the animé 'Hōzuki no Reitetsu', which I totally recommend if you're into supernatural dark comedy that also explores Chinese/Japanese folklore.**_

 _ **2 Tōkatsu Jigoku, the reviving hell, is the plane of hell reserved for those who commit the sin of killing.**_

 _ **Kokujō Jigoku, the hell of black threads, is reserved for thieves.**_

 _ **Shugō Jigoku, the crushing hell, is reserved for sinners of lust.**_

 _ **3 This is a reference to Japanese Showa era novelist Shōfu Muramatsu. In his 1924 novel Matō ("Demon City"), he portrayed the dichotomy of Shanghai – a modern, beautiful, civilized façade, hiding a darker side populated by all manner of criminals and vice. Fun fact: Baidu lists the four 'demon capitals' as London, New York, Shanghai, and Tokyo.**_

 _ **4 Inoue Enryō was a Japanese philosopher, Buddhist reformer, educator, and royalist. He also pioneered the field of Yōkai Studies in the 1880s. In a large scale project, he recorded, categorized and rationally explained every kind of folk belief and superstition he heard about in Japan. This ambitious program made him famous among his contemporaries as Doctor Specter.**_


	21. 廿: Nezumi

_**Silvervine**_

 _ **An LLS Production**_

* * *

 **廿** **: Nezumi**

I held up the black card to the light. It looked sleek and expensive in the human view, which meant that in the _yōkai_ world it was worth pretty-much crap-all.

"Not even my godmother," I told the card's owner as I sat across the coffee table from him, my back hunched over a delicious platter of dinner, "uses American Express for _household expenses_. Please tell me, in which universe does a special bank account gets set aside for your household expenses, and yet you still think alcohol is a food group?"

"I'm sure Godmother-in-law can magic up a new wardrobe each and every time she likes, so the same would apply for food. Living with her doesn't count."

"Well, that's..." I hedged. "...I can't explain the details."

Asami smirked at me, reaching over to pull the platter of the food of gods towards him. "And this was meant for you as payment for that advice on handling Onoda. I can't help it if you weren't receptive."

"It's not about my willingness, I literally have no clue, bastard!" I waved, and then frowned as my forked tail bobbed along with me. "Amongst _yōkai_ , there's no one who's physically strong, a magic user, intelligent and omnipotent all at once. The power of a lot of _yōkai_ are related to territory and representation. For example, Godmother is a _shinkirō_ , so her powers lie over the concept of a clam's breath building illusions in the sea. So, she can make something look like something else. However, because of Godmother's long and storied history, she's also capable of turning something into something else like at the Urabon festival."

Asami pushed the platter to me and let me pick my choice of _sushi_. "Well, I haven't seen you do anything aside from turn into a cat."

I picked one salmon _nigiri_ , and delicately blew a blue flame. It seared right there and then under his gaze of molten gold, and I dipped it into _wasabi_ and soya sauce before I ate the whole piece of vinegar rice and seared fish in two bites.

"I'm a cat _yōkai_ , but there are several subspecies of us," I explained further. "Right now I'm in the process of changing into a _nekomata_. So, I could probably raise corpses, cast strange fires, and transform into a human with human abilities. That's the limit of my abilities."

"Human abilities?"

I wiggled my free hand at him. "Thumbs!"

"I can see why that would be an ability..."

"But I'm young and book-dumb, so she never taught me a lot of spell-casting techniques," I sighed, taking another piece. "My physical vitality is the strongest out of the three of us, though. Kou's the oldest of us and he's a _gitsune_ , so he's better at the spells than I am. Takato's better at martial arts. Well, from the start they were Godmother's _shikigami_ anyway, so they had time to grow."

Asami ate a few pieces, silently considering the small nuggets of information I'd just traded for excellent sushi. The black card was put away – safely and unwillingly on the table – before he finally spoke.

"Out of curiosity, I've seen paper _shikigami_ , but I've never heard of _yōkai_ being referred to as _shikigami_."

I considered that as I drank. Asami's choice of beer was weird, but delicious, even if it's not from Shūten or Yashiori. "There are two technical meanings of shikigami, but the word itself means using a ' _kami_ ' or spirit as a 'tool'. The first method uses material and animate it with power, with varying levels of realism, power and intelligence depending on the amount of skill and magical energy used in its creation. One way to understand it is as a _katashiro_ , a replacement object used to represent another object."

Then I looked down. "The second definition implies using a pre-existing creature, and binding them into service. Abe no Seimei using _oni_ as his _shikigami_ was a mark of his great skill, for example."

My chopsticks snapped in my hands, but I ignored the unease that caused me to lose control in favour of staring back at Asami.

"By that definition... you and I are currently bound by that sort of contract where I am your master."

"Yeah. As a _tsukimono-suji_ ," I confirmed for him. "Oh, and, by definition, that means that I can also possess people."

"I know."

I started. "How?!"

"You called me, talking about being stuck in Tao's body."

I slumped. "Oh, right... I guess Kirishima-san told you."

"I won't say it's not concerning that possession is a very real possibility, but I doubt you would agree to possess anyone even if I ordered you," Asami commented.

"Possessions are unsanitary. Tao was... I was kinda desperate," I confessed, half-embarrassed at myself even as I ate some more. "Besides, there aren't a lot of strong _tsukimono_ left after the Edo period, so possessions can be considered rare. Humans following their own desires is more likely than possession by _yōkai_ in any age. What's so good about money? Can't even eat it."

I polished off half the plate, and looked up to Asami as I chomped down. The man himself had been nursing the same glass of beer, except that he was using a glass. A faint smirk played around the corners of his mouth – doubtlessly trying to find more ways of exploiting poor Akihito, nya~

"...what's wrong? Eat as much as you want."

"I've eaten up to twenty plates of conveyor belt sushi before!" I warned him.

"Fu~n, go ahead."

I ran my fingers through his shag carpet. Why is his thigh over there? I squinted at his leg, and then at the table, and concluded that I'd somehow migrated around over the course of dinner. "Beer is delicious~ I'm already light-headed~ "

Maybe I heard Asami laugh. "This is pretty potent beer, so don't drink too much, kitten."

I purred. "Godmother never lets me drink."

"She gave you _matatabi sake_."

I groaned. "Never mention that again. That's why she doesn't let me drink usually. Being drunk and high in the middle of the Nura-gumi meeting is terrifying."

"Nura-gumi?"

Moving from drunk to sober in an instant is going to stop my heart soon. "Oh crap. Crap crap crap. Godmother's going to _kill_ me. I'm really going to be skinned and turned into a _shamisen_."

"...you don't look like someone who has Yakuza connections," Asami then said.

I slumped, unable to face him. "I don't. I'm also not supposed to tell any human _anything_."

"From its phrasing, I suppose it's a Yakuza clan run by _yōkai_?"

"Well, that's right and _also_ wrong..." I fidgeted. "It's the local Hyakki Yagyō. Do I need to explain the Hyakki?"

"Toriyama made it a subject of his prints, but it was my understanding that the Hyakki Yagyō started in Heian-kyō, currently Kyoto."

"So, there are several different Hyakki Yagyō," I started. "The Hyakki that has stood at the top since the start of the Edo period is the Hyakki Yagyō of Nurarihyon-sama – the Nura-gumi based in Edo and presiding over the Kanto region."

"Hmm," Asami said in that way that preceded investigations.

"They also own the Takarabune fleet that my godmother borrowed in Hong Kong," I continued. "My godmother's clan is one of their affiliates. All those attempts to kill you before are going to look wimpy if you launch an investigation into them. So _quit it_."

"I'm not interested in _yōkai_ unless they cross me," Asami then thought deeper. "But... the potential of using _yōkai_ in crimes should be much higher."

"You're forgetting that _yōkai_ don't like to be controlled," I reminded him severely. "We're also super vindictive. Forgiveness and all those nice things are left for the gods and Buddhas. If you're using _yōkai_ in crimes, you'll have to bribe them like _tsukimono-suji_..."

Come to think of vengeance... The reason why Godmother put me here...

Was it to make taking revenge easier?

Possibly.

It was also a trap.

She'd never hid her confusion about me going to live as a human in the demon capital of the archipelago. If I killed him here... the identity of Takaba Akihito would have to die, and only the monster cat named Akihito would be left. My photography career and my passion forever confined to paranormal photographs, or possibly working with the Bakeneko clan. Worst case, I'd have to move to Jigoku.

Or I could walk out. The same thing could happen, except this time Godmother could spin it another way.

The contract, the one that put me here, at Asami's... I refuse to analyse that deeper... also pointed two ways of retaliation at Asami. I could kill him, and sabotage myself. I could walk out, with the added possibility of sabotaging myself. It created a situation where Asami was forced to bear with me in his space, a small sacrifice...

…which was perfect revenge, I realised now, if you were as much a particular control freak as Asami. Having such terms forced on him practically guaranteed that no matter which way I moved, the blade would fall on Asami's neck.

I could kill him.

I... probably wouldn't care.

I _think_.

Godmother, in your haze of planning, did you forget your godson's welfare? I don't wanna be involved in this tug-of-war... _meow-woo_...

* * *

My Godmother is three thousand years old.

In China that might fall short of Hakutaku-sama nowadays. In Japan where the only things older than her were probably the gods of the _Kojiki_ and _Nihon Shoki_ – and even _that_ was doubtful – her age meant a great deal. Certain circles of the otherworld prized age, equating it to energy and power and knowledge. Even if Godmother walked around with a young face, it only drove home the inhumanly long lifespan of someone who considered the Tang dynasty 'only yesterday'.

Godmother was very, very old. That age... also translated to stubbornness, but I generally found that a trait to be admired.

If only that same trait wasn't out to end my civilian life as well.

I found a white Go stone in my jeans pocket the morning after. I'd forgotten it in the wash. It was the same one that she'd handed to me in Bali, smooth and lined with the pattern of the shell it had been cut from. To make this cursed stone, Godmother had inscribed part of herself as a clam spirit. To play this would call a move that called down the hand of God1 – in this case, the hand of Godmother.

I walked the stone on my knuckles, before carefully putting it away in my pocket.

I would pass it to Ai-chan later, I told myself. It was my fault that Onoda became an _onryō_ to start with – so it was right that I repaid her. I told myself that very firmly as I pulled my camera bag and prepared to leave the apartment.

Well, I tried to. The thing is, I found men in black suits tailing me. Since the best method of outrunning the demons of corporate dress code was to scale a building, that was what I did.

I was running along the skyline of West Shinjuku when the call came. "Takaba speaking."

" _Where are you?_ " Asami started without preamble. " _My men said that you climbed a building façade to lose them._ "

"So those were yours," I commented, grunting as I dropped and rolled. I really should get a hands-free set soon.

Asami's huff made me pause on that lower rooftop. " _You slipping away defeats the point of having a lookout._ "

"For your information, Godmother never employed humans to watch me."

I hear that the Crow Tengu of Mt Takao had control over all the crows in Nura-gumi territory. My godmother might not be so avian-inclined, but her network still involved an excellent _yōkai_ grapevine I was obliged to touch base with at least once a week, as a condition of being allowed to move.

"It was either the building or your drones find out that their target has a 50 kph dead sprint," I explained. "I have a private appointment, bastard."

A loud report of noise had me pulling the receiver away from my ears for a moment. "Wait... what are you doing? What's that noise?"

" _Remodelling. A fire is bad for business, no matter if a psychotic pyrokinectic ghost is involved._ "

The buzz sounded again, louder and closer. "It sounds like a _chainsaw_ ," I said in horror as visions of American horror movies played in my mind's eye.

The bastard ignored me. " _Where are you, Takaba?_ "

I twitched. "Well, I'm on the small building off of the big road. And no, I can't give more specific directions. You know we _yōkai_ , notoriously poor at human directions."

" _I will buy a GPS collar and lock you in it,_ " Asami threatened.

"You do that, and I'll move to a place where GPS can't reach," I shot back at him. "Anyway, isn't this a temporary thing? I'm living with you just until Godmother's rage blows over or you get sick of me. Don't worry, I promise not to knowingly tell people hostile to you about the time I spent living with you."

" _...why would you think this is temporary?_ " Asami spoke after a moment of silence.

"Eh? Why wouldn't it-" I cursed as I slipped and nearly fell, barely correcting myself in time. "I'll talk to you later."

Then I hung up and put my phone away, before I made the fall from one high building to the next. That felt... bittersweet.

I had never tasted sweetness before changing forms. Neither had I tasted bitterness beforehand. Eating as a human was a new and varied experience – I vastly preferred human food, even if some of it was poisonous to my cat nature.

I don't think I like this taste.

I dropped progressively lower until I reached a part of Tokyo that was still ruled by smaller buildings where gentrification had yet to come. This was the edge of Ukiyoe Town, and where Ai-chan currently roomed with Kuchisake-san while her agency found another apartment.

"Thank you so much, Akihito-kun!" Ai-chan clutched the Go stone in her hand. "The _ofuda_ wards really helped, and Kuchisake-san was here the whole time with Hanako-chan and Kashima-san!"

"Ah, glad to hear it. Kashima-san is in Tokyo?" I asked, peering around.

"She managed to grab the Akenoboshi Station haunting this week!" Ai-chan nodded as she led me into the temporary shared apartment of four _yōkai_ girls at Kotobuki Manor. "The other day, she stopped a young student from jumping on the tracks."

"The student was probably scared half to death, being grabbed so suddenly by a _teketeke_.2" I said with feeling.

"Ah, it's fine, Kashima-san worked in Asajigahara for a while before she moved."

"That's the Kijo clan in Nara, right? That's awesome!" I expressed. "So Kashima-san actually fought other _yōkai_?"

"Ah, I don't think so..."

We exchanged gossip for a while, and Ai-chan looked much more animated talking about such stuff as we more or less wound through our list of mutual acquaintances.

"It's so easy to talk to you, Akihito-kun," Ai-chan confessed later as she got me another cup of tea. "My father didn't like to talk about _yōkai_ , not after..." she motioned to herself.

"Oh," I frowned. "Right. Ai-chan, you weren't born _yōkai_ , so... I need to consult you on something."

"Eh?" Ai-chan blinked in surprise. "Sure... go ahead. I'll try to help however I can."

I cringed on myself. "You've met my... boyfriend."

"Ah, that older gentleman?" Ai-chan nodded quickly. "What's wrong?"

"I said that our relationship wasn't going to last," I spoke. "But then it's like... he doesn't like that."

"..." Ai-chan mulled over her teacup before she put it down. "Akihito-kun, how do _yōkai_ relationships come about?"

"Ah..." I frowned. "I've met a few other _bakeneko_ , they're the love 'em and leave 'em type. Both male and female. When you have no concept of lifespan, sticking to one thing forever sounds boring. It's each to their own taste, really."

"Then... it's just for sex?" Ai-chan cautiously replied.

"I... I think I like him..." I blushed, looking at my cup. "...but he's human. You... understand, right? For _yōkai_ , whom even a single interaction is life-determining, humans forgive and forget so easily. The person you love today could become a stranger tomorrow in the human world... it gives that sort of feeling. And, even assuming that he won't cheat, there's no guarantee that I won't cheat, since I'm a cat. We don't form the same pair bonds as humans. And, Godmother just dumped me in his house like it's nothing... I don't like it."

"..." Ai-chan took a long sip from her cup. "I'm glad you told me that. The actions of our family fell to us in the end."

"...?" I tilted my head. "Ah, _rokurokubi_... are blameless _yōkai_. Most of the time they're born when a sin is committed, but the curse only affects women. But Kubinashi-san is a male _nukekubi_... the world might be getting fairer to women."

"I'm something that's not human," Ai-chan whispered. "I was so lonely, even when I found other _yōkai_ in Kai. When Shōei-san recommended this programme and I came to Tokyo after being scouted, I was so relieved. It's like, if I couldn't live in the human world, I could still find my way to the other world. After all, it's not the _yōkai_ way to worry about the future, right?"

I thought about it. "I wouldn't know about that."

Humans have so many rules, both written and unwritten. And in this time, when science rules over all their minds... how can they explain me? How could anything explain us? And why was there a need to?

Never mind that.

We chatted some more, somehow moving from the _yōkai_ world to the human world. Ai-chan mentioned another club affiliated to her agency in Azabu – Draceana. One of her human colleagues had disappeared. Kuchisake-san and the others came back with dinner ingredients, so I helped cook dinner. The TV was on, which was how the five of us later heard the news...

 _Early this afternoon, the investigation into the fire at Club Sion was declared as arson. Police have now issued an arrest warrant for Setagaya resident, Onoda Mitsugu... Onoda has recently been arrested on charges of stalking the famous idol, Momohara Ai, however the police had released him time and again... psychologist... the office of Club Sion owner Asami Ryuichi has released a statement pledging to raise the security of Club Sion... "this is probably a move to attract attention from the mind of a deranged man"..._

"I see," Kuchisake-san spoke. "Because we disappeared the body, nobody knows that Onoda is dead yet."

"And the fact that the _onryō_ can manifest itself only perpetuates this myth," Hanako-chan commented, looking much older than the young schoolgirl she was permanently frozen as.

"W- What should we do, Kuchisake-san?" Ai-chan sniffed.

"There's nothing to do!" Kuchisake-san growled. "Anyway, I thought Kyō-san would at least purify that body! But, now that there's a public connection between you and that Asami, you might have to be more careful."

"I know Asami," I spoke up. "He won't go after Ai-chan-"

"Don't say shit without meaning it, Akihito!" Kuchisake-san hissed. "If it's not Asami, then it would be his enemies. Ran has enough troubles without adding the human criminals within it. At this rate, the Nura-gumi might get involved, which is the exact opposite of what we want. Ran-chan won't be able to live as Ai if it continues."

She put a hand to her forehead. "The best thing we can hope for right now is that Onoda's spirit finally dissipates. The rumours about getting involved with Asami can be cleared up in the future. Your boyfriend has fingers in so many pies it's scary..."

"Uhm... forgive my ignorance, Kuchisake-san, but how do you know so many things...?" I asked nervously.

She told me.

* * *

Asami was home when I barged in, slamming the door open to fling a bunch of Polaroids at him. They sort of fluttered halfway in the space between us, but their contents were made clear all over Asami's living room floor. The man himself just sprawled on his couch, nursing his drink like a hot-shot.

Dumbass.

"So, you hired private detectives to stalk me, only the Futakuchi Agency refused to," I started. "Which is a coincidence, because my stalking expert also works there, and the Futakuchi in general aren't keen to work against _yōkai_. Species fraternity and all."

Asami simply stared back. "No client confidentiality, huh...?"

"Client confidentiality means shit when you go to a _yōkai_ agency and hire them to stalk a _bakeneko_!" I snapped back. "Is there some sort of trouble going on?"

"None." Asami took another sip, before taking up one photograph. "I simply wanted to keep tabs on you. A _yōkai_ agency, you say? Do they do body-guarding?"

I groaned, turning on one heel back to the door. "You're lying. I'm not important enough to keep tabs on. If I'm inconveniencing you by staying here, I'll go. You just have to tell me."

"That's why I asked, what makes you think that I don't want you?" Asami levelly asked. "How would you know the human heart?"

I shuddered. "Because I was just put here, that's why you put up with me. If I leave, Godmother would come after you again. Don't worry, if I leave my stuff here it's still home base, and I'll still be considered as living here. Even though I don't know why I'm here, or why Godmother put me here- I won't be a burden to you. So..."

 _Please let me have a home,_ I wanted to say.

I am a _bakeneko_ turning into a _nekomata_. I have no right to stay and invite misfortune on the residents of this place. Because much as I don't understand humans and their endless questions and their constant manipulation of the environment without a thought to those of the otherworld, I like humans. Even with Godmother, there was never this thing that I called 'home' – only endlessly rotating and changing places to sleep and eat.

I am a cat. I have nothing to my name until Godmother came.

I don't know when Asami had moved. One moment I was standing, and the next moment my back slammed against the wall again. Why do I allow this? It's like my rationality is being razed away... again...

"You want to know why she relented?" Asami hissed, nipping my ear and pulling a moan from my throat. "You want to know what dealings I made to the darkness, Akihito? Do you really want to know how this all happened? How we somehow got her blessing, how we spent that night in the shrine in a marriage before the gods."

"Oi, stop it!" I hissed as he fumbled my shirt. "I... I want to know if her putting me here was her revenge against you. Because... because _bakeneko_ cause misfortune to those who stay with them... and _nekomata_ eats humans... using the rules of the _yōkai_ world to kill you..."

Against his heartbeat and warmth, the rumble of his laugh just made it seem like I was standing in an earthquake again, helpless against the earth itself. "While I appreciate your concerns, the truth is far more simple, Akihito. As the head of a _yōkai_ clan, no matter how informal, there are ironclad rules even Godmother-in-law must adhere to. So I hired a matchmaker."

I sat up. "Huh?"

"I'll bring you to meet him tomorrow," Asami nipped my skin, and I hissed, trembling and helpless like the day I was probably born as a kitten. "Now, let's see if I can convince you again that your moving in was hardly a hindrance, and in every way part of dragging you with me."

* * *

 _ **Critiquez, s'il vous plaît !**_

 ** _1 In Go, a 'divine move' is a truly inspired and original move; one that is non-obvious and which balances strategy and tactics to turn a losing game into a winning game. The term comes from the Japanese 神の一手 meaning "move of God" or "Godly move"._**

 ** _2 The teketeke is a Japanese urban legend about the ghost of a young woman, or school girl, who fell on a rail way line and was cut in half by the oncoming train. Now a form of onryō, she travels on either her hands or elbows, her dragging upper torso making a scratching or 'teke teke' sound. If she encounters anyone at night and the victim is not fast enough, she will slice them in half at the torso, mimicking her own disfigurement._**


	22. 完: Yurishiiro

_**Silvervine**_

 _ **A/N: I decided to end it here, because it's a series. Asami and Akihito's story won't end here! I'll probably turn my hand to another crossover, possibly**_ **Okane Ga Nai** ** _, but no promises._** _ **  
**_

 _ **This whole series started from a comparison that nobody believes in spirits and they're kind of seen as losers, so they might as well be Yakuza! (and in the case of Nurarihyon no Mago, really hot Yakuza.) So I started with Totally Captivated, moved to Finder, added more fandoms, and I'll probably go find other BL manga involving Yakuza to weave into this fic series about the floating (under)world now... Please continue to give your support! - LLS**_

* * *

 **完** **: Yurishiiro**

 **Asami POV**

According to Akihito, there are only three things in life that scares him: drowning, not having enough food, and his godmother.

The latter is entirely understandable when one has met her in the flesh – as Kyō Kaigara, Jiāng Bèiké, Hamasaki Nanami, or any other alias we had failed to uncover. The first and second became even more understandable when Akihito explained the circumstances of his creation: a starving wild tomcat, tied up into a bag and drowned in the Sumida River, when it was still part of the Arakawa according to him.

There was also another, more hidden part of Akihito's transition to the otherworld. He would never tell anyone, because not even _he_ knew it.

"It's best not to tell him, of course," Kyō Kaigara spoke at that time, in that room in _Ikedaya_. "Menpō was supposed to give everything a fresh start at life with her magic medicine.1"

In my line of work, reading in between the lines was standard procedure. Politics was a game of power, no matter how it was played, and this board between us was simply an extension even if it was to gain the sole custody of one talking, shape-changing cat which had drowned in the Waters of Amnesia in a jailbreak attempt from Jigoku. Having reached that far, this demon then took him in as her godson.

"We're never going to know what drove him to achieve shape-change now," Kyō Kaigara continued. "But _yōkai_ constitutions are often strong enough to retrieve those memories."

"Why are you telling me this?" I asked her.

"Because I wanted you to know how futile this is," Kyō Kaigara looked like she sympathised, but her eyes gave her away with their flatness. She was a _yōkai_ , a demon born at a time when demons truly neither knew nor cared for humanity. "You will have his body, but one day when Akihito remembers, he will leave you. The _yōkai_ world is hidden from your reach, and you could never chase or track him to the other side. What is a sexual affair, compared to that which drove him to escape from the earth's prison in the first place?"

I do not know if she lied. Sometimes I do not know if Akihito is lying, because he says the most outlandish things, and at other times I have to realise that he was speaking literally rather than metaphorically. Her telling me, though, I could tell was meant for two ends: to dissuade me from taking in the _bakeneko_ that was the subject of contention; and, to force an end to this _affaire du cœur_ between us.

It seemed that Takaba was as disobedient towards the godmother he was terrified of, as he was to me.

That was... irritating.

"It could happen in ten years, twenty... perhaps even a hundred, after which it could be irrelevant," I dismissed. "My point is, Takaba Akihito is mine."

Kyō Kaigara gave me a level look. "Takaba Akihito is a legal identity. I will kill him before I let my family marry a _human_. Coming here and demanding my godson as your... after you raped him, at that!" Her eyes narrowed. "You are only still alive because that revenge is not mine to take."

I believed her. If she was indeed as old as Takaba claimed, she would be extremely experienced in faking deaths. She would also be accomplished at the magical curses which I had paid little credence to, up until Feilong's casino ship disappeared four thousand miles in the opposite direction from Macau into the Formosa Triangle, better known as the Sea of Ayakashi.

Takaba's literal fall into my life was rapidly turning into the most educational way the... _otherworld_... intersected with the criminal underworld, even in this era where beliefs in curses and _yōkai_ had all but disappeared. Nowadays, I would not be surprised if some of my fellows turned out to be of inhuman origins. Eking out a living is hard enough in the human world, never mind the... not-humans.

Hearing her confirmation, though... it was chilling, that Akihito's family would go so far to take him away from me, enough to murder him. How many times had Akihito mentioned the threat of being skinned for a _shamisen_ , and I had merely thought it an idiosyncrasy?

My Akihito healed quickly.

...how many times has it happened?

This is going nowhere. I need to recapitulate.

The current aim is to negotiate a ceasefire between myself and Kyō Kaigara after Takaba got kidnapped. This is a literal monster who nearly killed Liu Feilong, managed to land Arbatov in dire straits, and tried to kill me three times this week. She is not human, and she is Takaba's godmother. Following that logic, she is my prospective godmother-in-law.

Killing is out.

Seducing is out.

I could threaten her, but the only bargaining chip is Takaba, which I'm reluctant to use after Hong Kong, and she's already displayed a willingness to discard – and possibly blame me for it.

The logic of spirits does not necessarily follow the logic of humans, I am rapidly learning. Money means nothing to her, and the power I hold in human society likewise meaningless to a spirit who could capsize a cruise ship with a simple motion. She also hates me because of how I... _met_ Takaba.

No wonder so many men fear their mothers-in-law.

"He is your godson, make no mistake," I decided. "He is also important to me. I am the only human who knows his... secret. I have covered for him before, at the Shisui Clinic."

"You own that sanatorium, Asami-dono."

Alright. She has done her research. I can use that. "It is for our mutual benefit that your clan allies with me. I am human, of course, and I do not engender the same trust I would get if I were otherwise. I am however willing to tie myself to a _yōkai_ of our mutual acquaintance to prove my sincerity – Takaba Akihito."

"Akihito. Takaba was a human name of my former clients." She blew another plume of smoke, though her kiseru was definitely unlit. I had been intimately acquainted with her fire-breathing abilities. "Asami-dono, you strike me as the type not to mix business with pleasure."

"Concessions must be made."

She gave a regretful sigh. "The _yōkai_ of Edo have a long history of interaction and coexistence with humans. Sometimes peaceful, sometimes violent, meaningful and meaningless all at once. Your offer is tempting. However... what you are proposing is to adopt my godson into the Asami family. To bind Akihito like this will curse your future bloodline. And, forgive me for saying this, but you are a dangerous man."

"But I am someone you can entrust his safety to," I argued. "I am dangerous enough to safeguard him in the human world, the world where your influence is limited. I am willing to open my home to him. The only objector in this case seems to be you, Kyō-san. Akihito has stayed three nights in my home-"

The table surface caught on fire.

"The truce is over!"

It was the first time I had required guns to deal with the irate mother-in-law.

"The GAU-8 Avenger helicopter-mounted autocannon you requested is in acquisition, Asami-sama." Kirishima still looked a bit shell-shocked from the first phase of fighting that Akihito was thankfully not around to see. "Forgive me for commenting, but it would reduce her to..."

"The woman is bulletproof."

"Still, it seems like... quite an overreaction."

"Feilong and Arbatov reported the lack of effectiveness with grenades, shotguns, anti-personnel mines and assault rifles." And Kirishima had seen for himself how revolvers and semi-auto fared against the literal monster. Kyō Kaigara was possibly the only enemy on earth I was specially ordering a weapon which could saw tanks in half for. "I think we need to call Nán Zhāomíng."

Kirishima left the apartment. Akihito came home. I still can't figure out why she just let go. It was like the forbidden fruit was finally allowed, and then I took a big bite and it tasted... more than I expected. So good. But the initial attraction of being forbidden was gone.

That was her aim, I think.

"So you think my godmother left me here to screw with your head," Akihito blinked.

I nodded. "That, or my matchmaker is far more effective than I thought."

"Did you hire a _yōkai_ or something?" Akihito looked worried. "If you have to steal a baby to settle-"

"No, I pay him in jewels." I ran a finger down his chest, marvelling as Akihito shivered and mewled. My little kitten is a marvel. "She is experienced. She knew that you would likely rebel against any and all bans against us being together. So she used reverse psychology to trick you. Even if you knew the trick in your mind, your heart would still follow. It is an insidious trick meant to persuade you to leave the human world."

Even if it took ten, twenty years, this trick would have worked in the end. More than Feilong, more than Arbatov... I could not forgive Kyō Kaigara. Even if I had to kill her, I must win this. The stakes are too high, the odds against me.

She is his family. She is not human, like him.

Why does he toss my heart like this? Humans are fickle, I know this, but does Akihito know that he is the only exception of my life now?

I am willing to shoulder all the sins, if only my wildcat would stay with me.

* * *

 **Akihito POV**

There is an old fox currently haunting a house in Kanagawa, who told me that humans are fragile. They die in an instant. In comparison, I had forgotten a life before meeting Godmother in Tsukiji. I feel no attachment, though, because that is the way of _yōkai_ to always look only at the present.

I had not told Asami this fact. The fact that, somewhere in my past, I must have had another reason to turn human. That aside from my art, I now had a reason to wish to remember. I had said my goodbyes to that reason, painful it was.

When I look at him, my rationality is stolen. All I could think about is, it would be painful to say goodbye again.

Please don't let Godmother find out.

* * *

 **Kaigara POV**

I should have known.

That child never paid attention to anything aside from his viewfinder. I had thought it a passing subject, a setup for revenge. I had wished that my bright child would stay. But he has gone on his journey, and he has come out of those challenges changed. He has eaten the fruit of matatabi, and fought its curse of eternal wandering to find another home.

疲れた旅人がマタタビの実を食べたところ,

再び旅を続けることが出来るようになった.

 _Tsukareta tabibito ga matatabi no mi o tabeta tokoro,_

 _futatabi tabi o tsudzukeru koto ga dekiru yō ni natta_

Akihito has yet to realise that a home is not a location. His tail has split, he has gained fire, and the _bakeneko_ turned _nekomata_ still has not realised that he has already found a home.

* * *

 _ **Fin.**_

* * *

 _ **Critiquez, s'il vous plaît !**_

 _ **1 Meng Po is the Lady of Forgetfulness in Chinese mythology. It is her task to ensure that souls who are ready to be reincarnated do not remember their previous life or their time in Hell/Jigoku. To this end she collects herbs from various earthly ponds and streams to make her Five-Flavoured Tea of Forgetfulness (迷魂汤, literally: "waters of oblivion"). The brew induces instant and permanent amnesia, and all memory of other lives is lost. Having been purged of all previous sins and knowledge, the dead spirit is sent to be reborn in a new earthly incarnation, and the cycle begins again.**_


End file.
